The Silent Killer
by SMK Twisted Sister
Summary: A deadly and silent terror is unleashed upon the intelligence community.
1. Preview

Coming soon to a Wicky channel near you. (Simulcast on fan fic)

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It's deadly.  
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It's silent.  
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It kills.

The intelligence community has never seen anything of this magnitude.

Will they be ready when it strikes?

Will **You** be ready when it is unleashed?

PD-2 is contagious and deadly.

The Russians did not stop with PD-2.

What they are about to unleash will forever change the intelligence community.

No one is safe.

How far will it spread?

Will it reach the general public?

How many will die?

An all-new Scarecrow and Mrs. King mini-series, set to begin broadcasting on a Wicky channel near you Monday night at 8:00 PM, CST. (Simulcast on Fan fic)

**Programming schedule:** Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights until completion.

Author will **NOT** change the programming schedule. Other SMK fiction responsibilities take precedence on Tuesday, Thursday, and the weekend until completed. **  
**

You thought PD-2 was a nightmare.

You believed the threat was gone.

You were wrong.

Join an all-star cast of familiar and not-so-familiar faces from SMK as they battle an even bigger nightmare: The Silent Killer.

**Viewer Discretion:**

Intended for Mature viewing audiences only. Adult language, suggested sexual content, and death scenes included.

No quacking, bowels, or les trois nuits appear within the content. (Inside Wicky joke)

SMK

Bruce Boxleitner and Kate Jackson join an all-star cast for a brand new SMK mini-series!

**SMK**

"I've just gotten the prelim autopsy results. We've got a major problem Melrose."

**SMK**

"Billy, what's going down," Lee asked.

"Magna Alpha, double red, all birds to roost, ASAP."

**SMK**

"Frankly," Francine said as she ran her fingers under her nose and sniffled, "I feel like hell. Why are you calling me this early in the morning?"

**SMK**

"Smyth was at that meeting," Francine said. "Oh my God, when Amanda and I were leaving the other night, he came out of the elevator. He was sneezing nonstop."

Billy nodded.

"Probably contaminating everyone he came into contact with."

**SMK**

"The President is insisting that we have to."

**SMK**

"It's not PD-2, something slightly different. They've named it PD-3-TSK."

**SMK**

"A genetically altered pathogen of the same bacterium, _Yersinia pestis._ Nearly identical to what they injected you with six months ago," McJohn paused. "It's the plague."

"Damn," Lee shouted. "Amanda."

McJohn nodded soberly.

"Amanda and God knows how many members of the intelligence community," Billy said.

"And Lord only knows how many of the general populace," Dr. Joyce added.

"Fuck," Lee whispered barely loud enough for any of the others to hear.

"That's one way of calling it," Claudia replied.

**SMK**

Jamie looked at his father and, for a moment, tears seemed to tickle his eyes and threaten to spill. But, with another look at his father's glazed eyes and pale face, he knew that he was being counted on and this was really important. He had to do this, for his father and for Philip.

Jamie reached over and hugged his dad tightly.

"I can do this. I love you Dad."

"I love you too, Jamie. Now, get going and be careful."

Coming Monday night, June 4th at 8:00 PM – CST

Scarecrow and Mrs. King – The Silent Killer

The Preceding Commercials were designed for Wicky by TS


	2. Introduction

The Silent Killer

Late Summer of 1987, marriage is still mostly secret. A silent and deadly killer is unleashed within the intelligence community.A drama/suspense with character deaths. All known characters and locales from SMK belong to those who own them, not me. I believe that would be Warner Bros. and Shoot the Moon. No copyright infringement is intended. This work of fiction is for entertainment purposes only. 

Original characters and locales belong to my imagination or to my home state of Pennsylvania.

Inspiration and/or blame for this fiction, depending on your like/dislike, belongs to Kate Jackson's portrayal of a New York physician plagued with the plague in the 1992 movie Black Death.

What can I say?

I love this sort of thing. Microbiology and Quincy fascinated the hell out of me back in high school and so, what better way to satisfy all of that than to weave an SMK plot and see what kind of twisted havoc the Twisted Sister and her muse, Zena, can concoct?

Besides, when my muses take a compulsion to something, I can only blindly follow them and type away, hoping for the best when all is finished. Or, in this case, pray for the best.

Many thanks to two fine SMK fiction authors who took the time to read the first few initial chapters and provide feedback and encouragement.

As always, I can not thank enough my pit crew from Wicky, who are always there to provide friendship, encouragement, words of wisdom, and laughter, come day or night, hell or high-water, no matter the time zone. Without them, Twisted Sister and her non-conventional, sometimes warped, and always delusion-filled approach to fiction would still be locked away inside the gray matter.

The revered Corvette is not in any way damaged, flamed, mangled, or blemished. As for the intelligence community, well, you'll just have to read it to see what transpires and who expires. 


	3. Chapter One

****

Prologue

Yersinia pestis.

A bacterium found in rodents and their fleas, occurring in many areas of the world, including the United States.

When released into the air, the bacterium can possibly survive for up to one hour, depending on conditions.

Pneumonic plague, Bubonic plague, and Septicemic plague are caused by Yersinia pestis. These forms may occur separately or in combination. Pneumonic plague occurs when Yersinia infects the lungs, spread from person to person through the air. Transmission can happen if someone breathes in the aerosolized bacteria, which could happen in a bioterrorist attack. Only Pneumonic plague can be spread person to person.

With pneumonic plague, the first signs of illness are fever, headache, weakness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery sputum. The pneumonia progresses for 2 to 4 days and may cause respiratory failure and shock. Without early treatment, patients may die.

Early treatment of pneumonic plague is essential. To reduce the chance of death, antibiotics must be given within 24 hours of first symptoms. Streptomycin, gentamicin, the tetracyclines, and chloramphenicol are all effective against pneumonic plague.

Antibiotic treatment for 7 days will protect people who have had direct, close contact with infected patients. Wearing a close-fitting surgical mask also protects against infection.

A plague vaccine is not currently available for use in the United States.

PD2 is a genetically altered form of the bacterium, Yersinia pestis, which causes pneumonic plague. This was the bacterium that the Soviets injected into Lee during the episode Bad Timing (Fourth season, episode # 15, airing Feb. 6th, 1987.

Twisted Sister does employ a bit of artistic license here for intrigue/suspense purposes, but I have tried to stay as true to the facts as possible.

The Silent Killer

Chapter One

Friday Evening– July 3rd, 1987 (An apartment in Moscow)

Dressed in biohazard containment suits, three men patiently waited and watched their subject, another man lying on a cot along the far wall. The subject had now slipped into a nearly comatose state, his eyes unseeing while he burned with a raging fever and severe coughing spasms rattled his tortured body. His breathing had become labored and blood had become visible around the corners of his mouth.

For any member of the human species to watch another struggle and do nothing about it should have seemed inhumane. It would have seemed unthinkable to any normal person. But, for this elite group, it had become part and parcel of their job. They had, over the years, become desensitized; it came with their alliance to those who supported them.

One of the three men glanced up at the plain white clock hanging on the far wall, the black hands upon the dial slowly ticking off what would be the final minutes of their latest assignment. He knew that respiratory failure was imminent and it was only a matter of time until their subject passed on to whatever realm awaited on the other side.

The second of the three men walked over to the lab counter and picked up a notebook, observing some of the notations that had been made during this trial run. Everything seemed in order and he knew, without a doubt, that their superiors in charge would be extremely satisfied.

The third of the men shuffled the deck of cards in his hands continually, a nervous habit that he performed over and over when nothing but waiting filled his agenda.

And so, they waited. Each thinking about what they would do with the latest sum of cash that awaited them upon successful completion of the TSK experiment. Each thinking of how they could improve upon their lives when nothing but poverty and misery seemed to fill their beloved Moscow, unless you were a member of the elite. Success had been demanded not only by their superiors, but also by the three men themselves.

And successful it was, as was evidenced by the man upon the cot now fighting to inhale.

Yes, their superiors would be pleased.

Saturday – July 4th, 1987 (Washington DC)

The shrill ring of the telephone finally broke the long and dominating silence that had filled the room. They had been sitting and waiting for what had seemed to be an eternity. Perhaps, this was the news that they had been awaiting.

The skinnier of the two men anxiously snatched the receiver and brought it to his ear.

"Yes."

"When?"

"Yes. You know the rules, begin disposal and disbursement."

With an elated smile upon his face, he replaced the phone and then looked towards the other man in the room.

"Comrade, the rat has died."

The other man merely nodded. Then, he held up his wineglass and stared into the amber colored liquid for quite sometime. When he finally spoke, it was in a heavily accented Russian voice, slow and stilted.

"PD-3-TSK," he drew out slowly. "The silent killer."

The other man responded in a somber voice.

"Perfect. Silent. Deadly."

"Yes, what Doneck began, Miasnikov will bring to completion."

"Yes, and this time, comrade, may a plague come down upon their houses."

They both raised their wineglasses and smiled.


	4. Chapter Two

The Silent Killer

Chapter Two

****

Monday morning – July 20th - The Agency

"And," Billy Melrose continued speaking to the group of agents seated around the table, "need I remind you that Smyth is meeting today in preparation for Wednesday morning's ATAC review meeting. Nine o'clock sharp for those participating."

Groans came from several of the agents seated, most nursing cups of coffee or some variation of a cold carbonated can of caffeine to help them start another week in the playing arena of secrets and intelligence.

"And that," Billy said, "concludes this morning's meeting. As they say, another week has started."

"You can say that again," Francine grumbled, not nearly loud enough to be heard over the noises from the agents rising from their chairs to leave the room. But, the man sitting next to her heard and he chuckled.

"Don't like Mondays, Francine?"

Francine glared at Lee Stetson, momentarily, as several choice responses came to mind. Then, visibly perplexed, she began studying him.

"Wait a minute, Monday morning, not even ten, and you're in a good mood," she began.

"Your point?" Lee asked her as he gathered up his own notes and stood up.

"Just who are you and what have you done with the real Scarecrow? You know, the one who used to party all weekend and barely drag himself in here before noon?"

"I never did that," Lee denied.

"Yes, you did."

Francine stood up as well and then shook her head.

"Oh, I get it. Another weekend in suburbia. What was it this time? Junior trail hoppers or kickball?"

Lee laughed.

"If you really need to know, missing boards in the backyard fence, two cars that needed washed and waxed, and the best steaks on the grill that I've ever had."

Francine shook her head.

"Next thing you know you'll be telling me that you actually enjoy all of that."

"May sound boring to you, Francine, but yes, I do enjoy it."

"Maybe we need to limit your time with Amanda, before you become too normal," the blonde agent suggested.

"And what's wrong with normal?"

"God," she groaned. "It's too late."

Lee laughed and he thought he detected a hint of amusement in Francine's blue eyes despite the tone of her voice. Then, he decided that it was time to employ a change of topic tactic. There were some details from the weekend that he wasn't going to divulge to anyone, no matter how wonderful they had been.

"And what did you do with your weekend?"

Francine was going to tell him, but Billy's coming back into the conference room saved Lee from hearing all of the sordid details.

"If you two are done with the comparisons of the intricacies of daily life, we've got work to do. Francine, I need those files on Bain Engineering and Lee, there's a call for you on line three."

"Thanks," Lee said and he meant it, enormously. He smiled somewhat apologetically towards Francine and then picked up the phone.

"Stetson."

"Hi Rhonda, what's the word?"

"No, can't say that I have."

"No, no, I appreciate it. It might come in handy later."

"Yeah, I will."

Lee laughed over something she said.

"Yes, I will. Thanks. Bye."

He hung up the phone and shook his head.

"Anything?" Francine inquired.

"I don't know. She wanted to know if there's anything up with the Russians. Seems there's been a flourish of little meets, she thinks it looks suspicious."

"That's all?"

Lee nodded.

"For the moment. She hasn't heard much, but she'll keep her ears to the ground."

"Great, a Monday morning, you're becoming normal and the Russians have a new bag of tricks up their sleeves. Doesn't get any better than this."

With that, Francine walked out of the conference room, leaving Lee to stand there and smile. He couldn't help it that he'd had a wonderful, perfectly normal weekend.

A glance at his watch told him that Amanda should either be here already or was on her way. He headed off to the Q-Bureau, wearing a smile on his face.


	5. Chapter Three

The Silent Killer

Chapter Three

Monday evening – July 20th - 9:30 PM (An undisclosed address in the Washington DC area)

They were all Russian, the men seated at the table. Excitement clearly showed on their faces as one man poured each of them a celebratory drink.

One man held up his glass and toasted.

"To Doneck!"

"To Miasnikov," another cheered.

The eldest man in the room, a thin and gray-haired man of about eighty some years nodded in agreement. Then he raised his glass and cleared his throat.

"It will be a wonderful performance," he said and the other nodded their agreement.

They continued to fill and empty their glasses, drinking heavily into the night. They each knew that their script had been successfully brought to the stage and that the play was now being enacted out, one scene after another.

They each knew that by the time the performance reached the final act, the scene would resemble a child's playtime activity with toy soldiers doing battle to save the world. And, in the end, there would be tiny American soldiers toppled from their silent blow, littering the ground.

Victims of their own patriotic duty.

****

July 20th - 9:30 PM (A private residence in Silver Spring, MD)

Federal agent Greg Meyers, a man who'd devoted most of his adult life either to his country or to his wife of fifteen years, wearily trudged up the steps of their Maryland home, knowing that he would find his bed lonely again tonight.

He should be used to it but it didn't make him feel any better. Despite being married all of these years; they had spent a considerable portion of matrimonial bliss separated, mostly due to his career but sometimes hers.

As he stripped out of his suit and tossed the clothing into the hamper, the reflection of the light from the overhead bedroom lamp glinted upon the glass of a framed picture on their bureau and he couldn't help but pick the photograph up.

He gazed at it with both love and thoughtfulness.

They hadn't been able to have children, the one thing that he thought would have completed their marriage even more fully than it already was. Lately, Shelby had been dropping hints of possibly adopting.

They could, they both had successful and very stable careers. He'd had a long and decorated military career before joining the intelligence game. Shelby's career, while tame by his standards, had been just as fulfilling and rewarding for her.

They had managed their finances quite well and both came from affluent Virginia families. They had what most people would consider the perfect marriage, a handsome husband and beautiful wife, stability, and happiness. They had everything but a child of their own.

With a finger, he traced the smile upon his wife's face and smiled at the look of love in her blue eyes that the camera had captured.

"Shelb, my love, when you get back we're gonna have to talk about that."

Greg went into the bathroom and washed his face.

"Man, I feel like a train ran over me," he murmured aloud, his voice sounding raw even to his own ears.

He had not felt well all day. It had been hard to stay focused at today's meeting when he had been alternating between chills and hot spells. It had started the day before, with what he thought might be summer allergies.

A slight case of sneezing that had come on during the afternoon, something that he had dismissed, at first. The last two weeks had been extremely dry and hot with not a raindrop in sight for the DC area. He had heard radio reports of pollen counts and heat index readings, but he hadn't paid them much attention.

Tonight, Greg came to the conclusion that he must be catching a summer cold and despite the fact that his former military training told him that he could tough it out; he went to the medicine cabinet.

He took down a box of cold tablets, and, after popping two of them into his mouth and swallowing them down with some water, he padded across the plush carpeting and crawled into bed.

What he needed was a good night's sleep. He had a meeting early in the day with Lee Stetson at the Agency. They were in preparations for the first annual review meeting of the Anti-Domestic Terrorism Action Coalition. It had been nearly a year since the President had issued a request for the intelligence community to join forces in fighting terrorism upon American soil.

It was an allegiance that Greg firmly believed in and one that, obviously, worked well. Addi Birol was proof enough of that. Now, if they could just convince the black suits to continue backing and support.

Greg pulled the covers up and tried to get comfortable in the big king-size bed. He missed his wife and her presence; he missed the physical contact of just holding her as they fell asleep together.

"I love you Shelby," he murmured as he closed his eyes.


	6. Chapter Four

The Silent Killer

Chapter Four

Tuesday – July 21st – 9:30 AM

Lee Stetson entered the Q-Bureau; a multitude of file folders in hand and a frustrated look already etched on his handsome face.

"Good morning," Amanda greeted Lee as he shut the door.

"Hi," he replied.

Amanda immediately detected his lack of enthusiasm.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, I was supposed to meet with Greg Meyers from the National Security Council and he had to cancel. Seems he's a little under the weather."

"Isn't he their liaison for the ATAC group?"

"Yeah," Lee grumbled. "Which means I'm going to be putting the final touches on tomorrow's meeting by myself. I don't have to remind you that this is one hell of an important meeting. We need to show proof that the ATAC group needs to stay, not be dismantled. I don't care what those pencil pushing boys say."

She watched as her husband dumped the files onto his desk and headed straight for the freshly brewed coffee that she had made.

"I'd offer to help you," she began.

"I know, I know. You've got two freshman candidate training classes to cover today."

Lee rubbed his hands over his face; feeling the frustrations setting in already and the day had just begun. Then, feeling guilty that he and Amanda hadn't talked much this week, he tried to make amends.

"How's that going anyhow? You like it?"

Amanda couldn't help but smile at his hopeful look. She knew all too well where her husband might head with this line of interrogation, if she allowed the opening. He would have to count himself lucky that she had to be downstairs today and that he had a full agenda. He would also have to consider himself lucky that, despite his quirks and faults, she understood and she still loved him.

She got up from her chair and walked over to him, speaking as she made her way to him.

"Well, somebody has to do it, since Beaman's still on vacation, and since Mr. Melrose asked politely, well I couldn't very well turn him down, now could I? Besides, I haven't been ordered to stay in the car by any of the students, yet."

"Lucky Beaman," Lee said. "I'd like a vacation, we need a vacation. Together, alone, for more than one night."

Amanda smiled at him, then, knowing that her husband needed a little bit of consoling, she put her arms around him.

"I love you," she told him.

Lee kissed her lightly on the lips.

"I love you too, even though you've got the better end of the deal here."

"Hey, you're gonna be just fine. And, just think, get through tomorrow and then we can play house, Mr. Stetson. Just you," she paused to kiss him again, "and me."

Lee's expression brightened considerably.

"That's right, the boys will be camping with Joe and your mother, where is she again?"

Amanda laughed.

"This week she's at the beach with several of the ladies from the church. Then, the captain is picking her up down there and they are flying out to Oklahoma. Some type of plane reunion or something."

Lee shook his head. "I don't think we've seen much of your mother all summer."

"No," Amanda sighed. "But she's happy and that's all that matters." She leaned in and kissed her husband gently. "And you'll be happy this weekend, provided you don't blow a gasket over this meeting."

He hugged her closer. "You're right. I guess I'm just frustrated."

Amanda ran her hands up and down her husband's chest.

"The Agency couldn't have picked a better man to head the group," she told him. "Look at what the ATAC group has accomplished in just a year, it's impressive by anyone's standards. And, it is just a review meeting, so you feel better, right?"

"I'll feel better once I have you, alone, in your bedroom."

Amanda chuckled.

"You've got a one-track mind."

Lee moved to kiss her, taking opportunity of the brief moment to show his wife exactly what track his mind was on.

"I've got something to look forward to, Mrs. Stetson."

Amanda smiled at him, taking in the look of passion that had ignited in his hazel eyes.

"Behave, we're at work," she reminded him.

Lee locked his hands behind her back, pulling her very close against him.

"When do the boys leave?" he asked her in a low husky voice that had Amanda feeling sudden heated urges that had absolutely nothing to do with the hot July weather.

"Tomorrow morning."

Lee grinned.

"The week has just gotten better."

As much as she wanted to stay in her husband's arms, Amanda reluctantly pulled away.

"I've got a class to teach," she told him.

"And I've got a meeting to prepare for."

"Tomorrow night, my place?" she asked him while she picked up her stuff.

"Deal."

Just as Amanda reached the door, she turned around.

"Oh, there's a message for you from Rhonda, in front of your phone. You better look at it now before you scatter all of _that_ over your desk. I'll see you later."

Lee watched his wife leave their office, then sat down at his desk.

He picked up the message.

"The Russians are saying that something called TSK has arrived on the stage. If I hear more, I will call you."

Lee looked at the note, obviously puzzled.

"I haven't got a clue," he mumbled as he laid the note aside and picked up the phone. He dialed the number from memory and while he waited for the line to be picked up, he sipped his coffee.

When he got a voice on the other end, he smiled.

"Good morning TP," he began, hoping that his long-time friend might be able to overturn a few rocks and come up with something more concrete.


	7. Chapter Five

The Silent Killer

Chapter Five

****

Tuesday – July 21st - 5:45 PM

Amanda was heading towards the elevator; her mind already spinning on the list of things she had to do once she got home for the evening. She was forced to pause in mid-step when she heard Francine calling out her name.

Amanda turned around and greeted her coworker, silently praying that it was nothing more than a social conversation and not some last minute security crisis. From the looks of it though, she quickly established that Francine wanted to make a hasty exit for the evening as well. The blonde agent was juggling her purse as well as one very stuffed briefcase.

"Hold that elevator," Francine practically begged as she walked as fast as she could wearing nearly three inch heels.

Amanda gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Taking work home?"

"Unfortunately."

Francine sighed as she came to a stop beside Amanda as they waited for the elevator.

"So, how's the teaching gig going?"

Amanda shrugged.

"Oh, you know, it's going good. It's a little odd being in front of the class instead of in the class. Thank goodness it's only the introductory courses. Anything more advanced and I'm not sure I could handle it."

Francine scoffed.

"Believe me, if Beaman didn't think you could handle it, he'd have never suggested it to Billy in the first place and Billy would have never asked you to."

"And here all along I thought it was Lee's idea," Amanda said.

"Well, you do have a point there," Francine said. "Has he mellowed out any on that topic?"

Amanda sighed.

"If Lee had his way he'd have me chained to a desk until retirement."

Francine smiled knowingly.

It was no secret that since Amanda had been shot in California, Lee tried, sometimes with great failure, to keep Amanda safely tucked behind the walls of the Agency. It was also no secret that the two partners sometimes argued about that topic, Amanda usually coming out the victor and Lee going off to sulk.

"Give him time Amanda. You scared him, you scared a lot of us."

"It's in the past, I wish Lee could realize that."

Francine gave her an encouraging smile.

"Yeah, Scarecrow can be a little slow on the pickup, but you handle him better than anyone. How do you do that?"

"Patience?" Amanda asked and both women laughed.

"Where do you buy it? I could use some," Francine said as she glanced down at her briefcase. "The pitfalls of being an agent. I've had more than enough dinners for one this month. And why is this elevator always so slow?"

Francine looked down at Amanda's briefcase. "What are you working on tonight?"

"Tests to grade, plus I have to make recommendations on their research papers that are due at the end of the class. I take it you haven't had much chance to spend any time with Jonathan lately?"

"No," Francine said. "He's been patient, but I don't know how much more I can ask of him."

"At least you're both communicating. That's a very big part of any relationship."

"True, and he hasn't run away yet."

Amanda smiled; knowing that Francine was really hoping that this time around things worked out.

"Be patient, Francine. If it's meant to last, it will," Amanda told her, imparting wise words of advice from her mother.

The elevator finally arrived and the doors slid open, revealing Doctor Smyth. Both women took a step back, allowing the man to exit. He hadn't taken more than a few steps before he began a sneezing fit that sent the folders he had been carrying straight to the floor in a cluttered mess.

"God bless you," Amanda told him as both her and Francine knelt down to help him pick up the scattered work.

"Thank you King. Darn allergies, I've been sneezing all day. Horrible inconvenience."

Amanda smiled in sympathy while Francine did her best to hide a smirk.

"Benadryl," Amanda suggested.

"Really?" he asked.

Amanda nodded. "Works wonders with my youngest."

Smyth grunted. "Mother Hubbard and her many remedies. I knew I could count on you King." He sneezed again.

"Gesundheit," Francine offered.

With a grunt, Smyth proceeded away from them down the hallway, the sounds of his sneezing following him every step of the way while the two women got on the elevator. Once the elevator reached the top, both said good night and then left the Agency for the day, neither having any way of knowing what chain of events had just been set into motion.


	8. Chapter Six

Due to the medical dilemma back home, I extend my apologies, ladies, for getting this out slower than originally intended. Many thanks for the words of support and shoulders to lean on. J

The Silent Killer

Chapter Six

****

Tuesday – July 21st - 8:00 PM

Francine Desmond left herself into her apartment and made her way to the couch, on to which she promptly dumped all of her stuff in an unceremonious heap. From there she made her way into the bedroom, where she stripped off her work clothes. She tossed her heels onto the floor and her clothes flew in the general direction of her hamper.

She pulled out a pair of faded jeans and a black t-shirt and changed into them, grateful for the comfort they provided. After pulling her long blonde hair back into a ponytail, she made her way into the kitchen to heat up some leftover pasta in the microwave.

"Pasta for one, iced tea, and a workload for three," she said aloud, though there was nobody in her apartment to hear her.

She went back to the couch and retrieved her brief case, knowing that she had a long night ahead of her. Lee had come to her earlier in the day and asked, no, make that practically begged for help in getting the briefs ready for tomorrow's meeting since Amanda's availability was virtually non-existent this week.

Francine, of course, had helped him on one condition. He would owe her and he would owe her big. Not that she would probably bother to collect, but still, it had made a nice bargaining chip. He'd been quite pleased when she'd given him the completed documents before leaving for the day, even though it meant she was bringing some of her own reports home to complete.

Focusing on the task at hand, she began sorting out the different folders while eating only a few bites of her meal before pushing the plate away. She'd only been at it for about half an hour when her telephone rang.

"Hello."

"Jonathan, hi."

"I'm fine."

"No, I can't. I'd love to, but we're up to our neck in research at the moment."

Jonathon said something and she laughed.

"Well, if I'm lucky, Sunday afternoon?"

"I'd love to. I'll call you then. Goodnight."

She hung up the phone and sighed.

Why was it that now, when it seemed like their relationship might be heading somewhere positive, did she have to be up to ears in work?

She allowed her mind to drift back a few months earlier, when they had gone on vacation together and rediscovered so many of the things that had brought them together in the first place. It had been good, Francine smiled, very good.

Well, with any luck, the remainder of the week would unfold rapidly and she might be able to salvage part of her weekend. For the here and now though, it was going to be a long night and she needed caffeine.

She rose from her chair and headed to the kitchen, knowing that black coffee was going to be the key factor now.

****

Tuesday – July 21st – 11:30 PM (A private residence in Virginia)

Austin Smyth pulled himself wearily out of the hot shower and managed to pull on his pajama bottoms. Then, he picked up the box of allergy medication that he had picked up on the way home from work and swallowed another tablet down.

Earlier, he had hoped that Mrs. Sweet and Nice had been correct with her recommendation of allergy medicine but it seemed that the first tablet hadn't done a single thing for him in regards to relief. If anything, he felt worse.

It was the middle of summer, he mumbled to himself as he made his way to the bed and crawled in. It was ridiculous to even think of getting sick and yet, somehow, that's what seemed to be happening. He couldn't even recall the last time that he had been sick.

He set his alarm and then reached over to shut the bedside lamp off. Maybe with some sleep, he'd feel better in the morning.


	9. Chapter Seven

Well, the medical dilemma back home is slowly improving, so maybe I won't be spending quite as much time making long distance calls every night after work. Thanks to all of you (you know who you are and I fear I might miss someone ) who have lent kind words and prayers during all of this. It has been greatly appreciated.

And now, back to the story.

The Silent Killer

Chapter Seven

Wednesday – July 22nd - 9:35 AM (4247 Maplewood Drive)

"Fellows, come on!" Amanda hollered up the stairs. "You dad is gonna be here any minute."

"Coming Mom!"

"Be right down!"

Amanda sighed as she took one last look at the pile of stuff they had packed. She knew she had double and then triple checked the list, but she always felt like she was missing something and that it would be her luck for it to be something important.

Just then the doorbell rang.

Amanda maneuvered her way around the boys' luggage and hurried to the door. Upon opening it, she was met by the sight of her ex-husband. He was wearing a pair of cut-off jean shorts, T-shirt and a huge grin. Closer scrutiny made it obvious to Amanda that he was certainly more relaxed than the last time she has seen him.

Joe greeted her with a hug.

"Good morning, Amanda."

"Good morning, sweetheart," she told him. "Come on in."

Joe entered the house and closed the door behind him.

"I bet you're really happy to be getting away for awhile," Amanda told him.

"Yeah, I am. Who would have ever thought that planning a wedding could be so complex and so crazy? We didn't have this much anxiety with ours, did we?"

Amanda shook her head. "I don't think we had time to, not with school and everything. Besides, we kept it simple, remember?"

Joe smiled. "We did. I wish Carrie wanted simple."

"Joe," Amanda said softly. It's her first wedding. She's thrilled; she's in love. Let her enjoy it. Come on in and have some coffee."

"Not quite ready, are they?" Joe asked with a laugh as he followed Amanda into the kitchen.

"No. I've been so busy with work and they told me they'd have everything ready last night by the time I got home."

"You knew better, right?"

"Oh yeah," Amanda laughed as she poured him a cup of coffee.

"So, how's work?" Joe asked.

"Oh, you know. Busy."

He accepted the coffee from her.

"Thanks. And does that mean I don't have a need to know or does it mean you're really busy?"

"Really busy," Amanda laughed and then lowered her voice, not wanting to take the chance of the boys overhearing.

"I've been helping out with one of the classes. The instructor is on vacation, so I've been teaching it. Introduction courses, nothing too hard."

"Really? You like it?"

Amanda watched as Joe's smile lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Not you too," Amanda groaned. "I think Lee would be thrilled if I took it up full-time."

"Not too wild about you being back full-time, is he?"

"No," Amanda sighed as she took a sip of her coffee, her third cup this morning.

"Amanda, I know you don't like all of this coddling," Joe began.

"Oh Joe, it's not that. I appreciate it and I understand it, but it's just that I've worked so hard to get where I'm at and I refuse to let what happened in California hold me back. And," she said with a smile, "even though the list appears to be growing, I refuse to let the men in my life chain me to a desk."

She took another sip of her coffee.

"It can be just as dangerous crossing the street or going for groceries. It comes down to just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you can't change fate."

"You can't blame us for trying."

Amanda nodded and then, suddenly sneezed.

"God bless you," Joe told her. "Have you been near horses lately?"

"No, I don't know what triggered this. It started this morning. I think the pollen count or mold or spores or something is up rather high, what with no rain lately. Jamie's been sneezing off and on for a few days and I did pack him some allergy medicine, just in case it gets too bad."

Just then the boys ran into the kitchen and greeted their dad with hugs.

"Why don't you two start loading the Jeep while your mother and I talk? Okay?"

"Sure Dad."

Phillip held out his hand towards Amanda.

"Keys," the teenager demanded with a wide grin.

Amanda shook her head and Joe laughed.

"At least he's only packing the car, not driving off with it."

"Yeah," Amanda sighed as she handed her eldest son the keys.

Jamie and Philip ran out of the kitchen.

"And don't turn the engine on!" Amanda called out to them as they heard the front door open.

Then she and Joe just looked at each other, both wondering how their sons had gone from diapers to this, seemingly overnight.

"You're going to have a wonderful time," Amanda told him. "It's supposed to be gorgeous weather."

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. No wedding plans, no decisions, no stress. Just fishing and camping with the boys."

Amanda laughed.

"You sure about the no stress part?"

Joe laughed. "Believe me Amanda, nothing stressful is going to happen. You remember how wonderful the lake is?"

She nodded. They had gone to Lake Raystown several times, the first being right after they had gotten engaged and Joe's friend, Mark Wensel, had invited them to come up for a week right after college had ended for summer break. Mark had ended up having to cancel due to a family emergency with his then-girlfriend and Joe and Amanda had had the cabin to themselves.

It had been a wonderful week, for both of them.

"Amanda?" Joe's voice interrupted her memories.

"Huh?"

Joe laughed. "It was a good week, wasn't it?"

She felt herself actually blushing.

"It was and I really think we should go check on the boys. It's much too quiet."

"Oh dear," Joe said as he quickly rose from his chair. "Maybe I spoke too soon about no stress."

Both of them laughed as they headed off to see what the boys were doing.

Wednesday – July 22nd - 9:55 AM

Lee Stetson was pacing around Billy Melrose's office like a caged animal. The Scarecrow was venting in a rapid Amanda styled spiel, covering everything from the lack of coffee to missing meeting attendees and everything in between.

Billy sat quietly at his desk; thankful that he had not yet opened his office blinds this morning and that, for the moment, his office door remained closed. He was, however, silently lamenting the fact that his morning donut remained untouched and that his coffee was growing cold.

Finally, Lee paused to inhale, and Billy had to fight back the urge to chuckle at his best agent. At one time, the Agency Section Chief would have sworn that nobody else could fit that much dialogue into two or less sentences and do so without pausing for oxygen other than Amanda. Apparently, it was true what they said about partners picking up habits from one another.

Trying to assume as dignified a posture as possible, Billy concluded and then proceeded with a calming voice, obviously his wisest approach to the agitated agent.

"I understand all of this Lee, I really do," Billy told him.

"There's nothing that either of us can do about Meyers being ill and besides, you received the notes from the original NSC meeting and the memo from the President and what they expect. They didn't put the ball in your court last year because of your good looks and charm. I trust you Lee, the NSC trusts you. You were here until nearly midnight last night. You can handle this today."

"Yeah, yeah," Lee grumbled as he ran his hands through his hair.

"I know that. What I also know is that for every one person on the Hill who believes we can make more of a difference there's another three who can't justify the extra backing. It comes down to a numbers game and we don't win the game when team members are on the sidelines."

"Lee, I've been in your position, time and time again. It would be easier with Meyers presiding over this with you, but one missed meeting doesn't lose the game. The President was highly impressed with what the ATAC team did last year. Hell, I was impressed. Granted, it didn't run by the book, but it worked, you achieved results. Given the circumstances, I know that you can adapt. Besides, when did you ever play strictly by the book anyhow?"

Lee gave his boss a look that, although it appeared frightening, really didn't mean much to Billy. He'd known Scarecrow for a long time. Sometimes it was better to let him vent and spew like a volcano and then get on with it.

And so, Billy continued on in a calm voice.

"Second, they're pulling another coffee maker to bring up to the break room. Ragmop will clean up the mess in there and everyone will get their caffeine fix for the morning. Problems solved."

"No," Lee shook his head. "Problems not solved. It's awfully hot in the conference room Billy. I would know. I've been there since seven setting things up. Are you sure we don't have a problem with AC system?"

Billy sighed.

"I will have them check into it. You will have your coffee; the day will be fine. Trust me."

"I guess I have to, they pay you the big bucks."

Billy grinned.

"Now go, you're scheduled to start," Billy glanced down at his watch, "five minutes ago. And I need to find out where Smyth is."

"What, he took a little side trip to Siberia that we don't know about?"

"Wipe the smile of your face Stetson and get back to work."

Lee left Billy's office, still wearing a smile, and Billy thankfully crossed one avoided crisis off the ever growing and always present list. For a moment, just a moment, he was going to focus his attention on his donut and coffee.


	10. Chapter Eight

The Silent Killer

Chapter Eight

"Well, we're all set," Joe said with a triumphant smile.

They'd gotten Amanda's Jeep packed, finally, and the boys were ready, finally.

Amanda smiled back at him.

"No stress, huh?"

Joe shook his head.

"It's gonna be great. We're gonna have a great time, right guys?"

"Yeah," Phillip exclaimed. "I'm gonna catch more fish than worm brain over there."

"Phillip!" both Joe and Amanda said.

"Nah, dork breath won't catch any fish," Jamie retaliated. "He'll be too busy trying to see if there are any girls around the lake."

"They're brothers," Amanda said with a smile.

"They're wonderful," Joe leaned in closer so only she could hear, "thank you."

Amanda looked at him, puzzled.

"For what?"

"You're a fabulous mom, you know that?"

Amanda leaned over and kissed her ex-husband's cheek. "I wouldn't trade them for anything."

Phillip snorted and Jamie chuckled.

"Parents," they both said in unison.

"Well, let's get rolling here, shall we?" Joe asked.

"Awesome!"

"Yeah!"

Both boys began to race to the vehicle but were brought to a rapid stop by their mother's voice.

"What, I can't even get a hug or a kiss goodbye?"

Both boys rolled their eyes, but willingly trotted back to their mother.

"You know, someday Mom, you've got to stop with all of this mushiness," Phillip told her. "It's not cool."

"It's not, huh?" Amanda leaned down and hugged her eldest son. "Remind me to remind you of that when you have kids of your own."

"No way," Phillip said. "I'm gonna have a fast car and lots of chicks."

Jamie shook his head. "If he doesn't learn how to read, he won't have any car because he won't pass his driver's test."

"Goofus," Phillip told him.

"Boys!" Joe laughed.

"Love ya Mom," Jamie said as he quickly hugged his mother.

"Bye Mom!"

"Be good! Have fun!"

"We'll see you next week," Joe said before kissing her on the cheek. "And tell Lee that I said hello and that I agree with him."

Amanda groaned.

"Have fun sweetheart," she answered. "Oh, I almost forgot."

"What?"

Amanda held out her hand to her ex-husband.

"Keys?"

Joe laughed.

"Yeah, I almost forgot." He handed over the keys to his sedan and Amanda eagerly took them. "Now, do I have to go over the rules with you," he teased her.

"The only rule is have fun. I'll take good care of your vehicle if you take good care of mine."

"Deal."

Amanda watched with a twinge of sadness as they pulled out of the driveway, the boys waving and Joe wearing a huge smile. While their marriage may not have worked, at least they had this. And for that, she was thankful. There were a lot of children out there who didn't have the calm that she and Joe had both agreed was necessary for the boys when they'd first gotten divorced.

Turning around, she headed back inside the house to get ready for work, sneezing again as she went in the door.


	11. Chapter Nine

The Silent Killer

Chapter Nine

While Joe and the boys headed north, away from the city and towards the more serene prospects of the Pennsylvania countryside, the atmosphere within the Agency was quickly becoming less than tranquil.

Much like the outdoor temperatures that had been hovering in the high nineties over the nation's capital for several weeks, the tempers within the building were also rising. Serenity, it would seem, had also taken off on vacation, leaving more than a few IFF staff members near the boiling point.

The first crisis of the day had been brought to Billy's attention very early on, thanks to Scarecrow. The coffee pot in the break room for the bullpen decided to malfunction, spewing a messy mix of coffee grinds and water all over the counter and leaving more than a few miffed at having to travel from the bullpen elsewhere in search of their morning caffeine fix.

A multi-car crash on one of the major highways had caused more than a few employees, meeting attendees, and others to arrive late. Needless to say, many of them did not appreciate the extra long hike to obtain their much-needed caffeine after being stranded en-route to work amidst vehicle exhaust fumes and other irate motorists.

Now, if that had been all that they had had to contend with, it would have been a different story. By ten in the morning, Scarecrow's complaint of an overly warm conference room had extended to the entire floor. The air conditioning system decided, on this overly warm day, to throw a major fit.

As for Lee's meeting, well, it was safe to say that it just wasn't his day. The meeting couldn't begin on time and Greg Meyers was very much absent, leaving Lee to run the entire show by himself. Of course, everyone had wanted coffee to start off the day and then, as the indoor temperatures continued to rise, they had begun pleading for more ice water. By the time their catered lunch had been brought in, most of the attendees had stripped off as much clothing as they could while still maintaining some professional dignity and Lee was trying to ward off a very pounding headache.

Now, if that had been the only thing that was not going quite exactly as planned, it would have been tolerable. But, there is some old saying about Murphy's law or when it rains, it pours. And yes, inside the Agency it was certainly pouring woes down upon them.

In the middle of his lunch, Billy discovered that he had to be a last minute substitute for Smyth, who had the audacity to call in and say that he would be unavailable for the day. The Section Chief took one last bite of his potato salad, grabbed his jacket and scurried from the office, praying that he might at least find cooler heads prevailing where he was heading.

The woes and misery did not end there.

Poor Francine was also fighting a headache and as they say, was quite thoroughly disgusted. Her desk computer had attempted to eat her floppy disc for lunch while she still hadn't been able to find the time to schedule her own in.

This was the same floppy that she had taken home to finish up her own work the night before. She'd broken a nail in the process of trying to retrieve it and then, after she had finally admitted defeat and had been sitting there plotting on just how much of the bargain she was going to cash in on with Lee, Jonathan called.

So much for Francine's idea of salvaging a little personal time later in the weekend. The idea flew right out the window when Jonathan informed her that he had to go out of town on business and wouldn't be back until late Monday night.

And, despite her nearly pleasant start to her morning, Amanda's day wasn't shaping up to be much better. Half of the students in the freshman class were now angry with her because she had graded their papers by regulations, with no curve. Most of them had not fared well and they jumped on the opportunity to try and take advantage of their substitute.

At first, she had tried to reason with them, explaining that Beaman had insisted on no curve. Then, she attempted to point out to them that if they took their agent training seriously, they would have been prepared for the test, curve or not.

That had earned her more than a few looks reminiscent of those she had seen with her sons when they had attempted to pass the blame on their bad grades elsewhere. It also earned her a few comments that she could have done without.

By two in the afternoon, the meeting attendees were drenched and Lee was having a hard time keeping anyone's attention due to the loud clanging and banging overhead while the AC system was apparently being serviced. Then, one of the men from the CIA ended up leaving shortly after lunch, complaining of a migraine.

Francine had taken refuge in Billy's office, still irked that her work seemed doomed to the land of irretrievable data and that she would have to redo most of it from start. Her head was throbbing and the Tylenol that she had taken did not seem to be taking the edge of. The temperature had kept rising, right along with her temper and even clipping up her long blonde hair had done little to improve her mood.

When Amanda began the day's second class, they obviously still hadn't gotten over the fact that before she'd dismissed them for break, she'd asked them to think about being in the field and what might happen if they messed something up due to lack of proper preparation. She wanted them to speculate on whether a life or death situation would allow them a curve to remedy their inadequacies.

Finally, at three forty-five, she dismissed them, totally disgusted with almost the entire class. After shoving papers into her briefcase, she left the classroom and headed down the hallway to the bullpen, thankful to see Francine sitting in Billy's office with the door open.

Amanda had just sat down on the couch, blowing her bangs upward with a disgusted breath when Billy stormed back into his office, stripping his suit jacket off in the process and tossing it in the general direction of where it normally would have been hung up. He demanded that Francine hand him his bottle of antacids, then, after popping one into his mouth he looked at both women and asked them why they were in his office.

Francine shook her head and pointed out the window towards her desk, where not one but three technicians now stood. All of them were wearing similar perplexed expressions.

"Seems not only did my computer get a little hungry, now half of them are throwing a tantrum and refuse to boot up."

Billy looked at her, a little confused. Then, above their heads, another series of loud bangs and clashes assaulted their ears. This was quickly followed by a hot blast of air swishing from the vents above them.

"What, is this the day from hell?" Billy growled.

Neither woman had a chance to reply as Lee Stetson came tearing into the office, his shirt sleeves rolled up, his tie long gone, and his normally perfect hair looking as though his hand had spent the better part of the day raking through it.

"How the hell am I supposed to conduct a meeting in there? First of all, Greg Meyers calls in sick, again, and I'm left running the whole damn show. Then, halfway through the meeting Carlson from the CIA says he needs to go home, he thinks he's getting a migraine or something and I can't hear myself think over the rattles from the repair technicians, who obviously aren't doing a damn bit of good. It's blowing heat out. We don't need heat, it's over a hundred degrees outside, what the hell do we need heat for?"

"Poor baby," Francine said. "Try having all of the data that I worked on last night from home lost, because I volunteered to help you yesterday for your briefs for your meeting because Amanda wasn't available."

"Don't blame this on me," Amanda retorted as she pointed to Lee. "It was his idea in the first place to make sure I don't get anywhere other than behind a desk. A position which, need I tell you, is ridiculous because that classroom is filled with nothing but spoiled brats. Brats who wanted to go home early because they were hot, brats who insisted that I adjust their exam grades with a curve, despite the fact that Beaman left explicit instructions not to."

"Amanda," Lee growled, "I've had a top security clearance meeting that turned into shambles cause half of them were ready to pass out from the heat. Where the hell is the Agency funding going if we can't even keep a simple conference room cool enough to conduct a meeting? I suppose the FBI gets enough funding to keep their systems operational."

By this time, Billy felt as if he was watching a tennis match, with each of the three agents seeming intent on making their day the winning loss.

"Well, I think the FBI is getting more for their computer systems than we are. I mean, look at those technicians. They don't look any older than Amanda's sons and they're trying to restore vital data, data that I stayed up until well after midnight last night because I did you, Scarecrow, a favor."

"Hey, I offered to repay you," he reminded her.

"Do any of you care that an entire class of future agents, thirty of them, seem to think that they can get by in the field only half-prepared because they think the KGB or the Libyans are going to give them a curve for their screw-ups? And, don't you go yelling at Francine, Lee. It's your fault that you didn't have the help. I would have gladly helped you, but no, oh no, you seem hell-bent on keeping me chained either to a desk or in front of a class that doesn't seem to care about national security."

Amanda marched right over to him and began tapping his chest.

"And if I hear one more comment from that Traci, Traci with an "i" I might add, about how Beaman will give them a makeup test next week or that just because I'm your partner doesn't mean I have to be so strict with them."

"Amanda," Billy interjected calmly. "Let's be rational here."

"Rational? You do not get a second chance out there," Amanda said. "I don't think Beaman has been stressing just how dangerous it can be. I'd like to know when and where the bad guys use curves."

Lee practically snorted.

"And now do ya think you might understand why I always told you to stay in the car?"

"That was different," Amanda rebutted.

"She never listened anyhow," Francine added. "And does anyone care that I lost hours worth of work and that half of the computers out there are not working?"

"Enough people," Billy said. "What, you all think I had a picnic today? I had to fill in for Smyth, and mind you; this was for a meeting that I wasn't even prepared for. A major meeting people."

Billy inhaled deeply before continuing.

"And this is my office, can I please have it back? Why don't you all knock off for the evening and we can start fresh tomorrow."

"Billy," Francine exclaimed.

"Whatever you're working on Francine will keep until tomorrow. And Amanda, I'm sure once they've had an evening to think it over, the class will realize the wisdom of your opinions. If not, most of them won't be making it to the next round of classes, and we'll be better off for it in the long run. Lee, I'm sure you handled the meeting with as much success as possible despite the heat. Tomorrow will be better, the AC will be working, the computers will be fixed and maybe I can get some answers as to why Smyth left me covering for him on such short notice."

Just then Amanda sneezed.

"Bless you," Billy told her. "Now, all of you, scat. I need my office back."

Just then his phone rang and he grinned at them.

"See, some of us do have work to do. Goodnight people."

The trio began making their way out of Billy's office but hadn't made it very far before Billy's booming voice filled the air.

"Lee!"

"Yeah," Lee said as he turned back around.

"Is Hayes with the NSC still here?"

"No, he left about ten minutes before I came into your office," Lee told him.

Billy nodded, then waved Lee away.

Lee took the opportunity to catch up with Amanda, who was now waiting by the elevator and wearing a very exasperated look upon her face.

"Hey," he called out to her.

"Yeah," she replied without looking at him, her eyes clearly focused on the elevator doors.

"Manda," Lee began in a hushed tone when he got closer to her. "Look, none of us has had a good day and I'm sorry about that back there."

"Lee," she said, "it isn't a big deal. We're all a little hot and edgy right now."

"Yeah," he replied, still not sure if she was mad at him or not. "Look, just because the day was lousy, we can still salvage the night. That is, if you want to."

He gave her a hopeful look; the complete package filled with the disarming smile and the melt-her-into-a-puddle at his feet glance from his hazel eyes. The very look that she'd never once been successful in not reacting to.

"I still want to," Amanda reassured him. "Now, let me get home and get dinner started, okay?"

"I won't be long," Lee promised her.

"I'm holding you to that," she whispered as she gave him a smile.

With that, the elevator doors opened and Amanda got in. Lee walked back down the corridor after the doors closed, feeling a sense of relief that this day was behind them and that the evening was shaping up rather nicely.

The closed doors and the distance he had put between himself and her prevented him from hearing her coughing.

They say, sometimes, that ignorance is bliss.

They also say that what you can't see, can kill you.


	12. Chapter 10 Part 1

The Silent Killer

Chapter Ten

Part 1

Wednesday – July 22nd - 7:30 PM

Shelby Meyers arrived home from her business trip exhausted but thrilled. It had been quite the productive trip and she was feeling quite proud of herself. She couldn't wait to get in the door and share her success with her husband. More to the point, she couldn't wait to see her husband.

She loved her job and yes, they'd had their fare share of separations during their marriage, but coming home was always so wonderful.

She closed the front door behind her and dropped her suitcases at her feet. There would be time enough later to unpack. Right now she longed to feel her husband's loving arms around her.

"Greg," she called out. "I'm home."

There was no response.

"Maybe he's upstairs," she said aloud. With scarcely a thought, she kicked off her shoes and then ran up the stairs to find him.

What she found was unlike anything she'd envisioned on the flight home.

Her husband was in the bedroom, but that's where the dream ended and the nightmare began.

He was lying on the floor beside their bed, clad only in his pajamas.

He was not moving.

His shirt was splattered with what looked like bloodstains.

There was blood on his chin and lips.

There was a cold stillness about him that made every hair on the back of her neck rise and a cold feeling more frigid than being upon the polar ice caps wearing nothing but shorts roared through her veins.

"Greg," she whispered as she knelt down beside him.

He did not respond.

He could not.

"Greg!"

Tentatively she extended a hand to touch his cheek and her warm fingers were greeted with an eerie cold hardness.

Her breath caught in her throat and the world began to spin around her, like being caught on a never-ending ride at an amusement park, with no means of escape.

"Greg," she sobbed.


	13. Chapter 10: Part 2

The Silent Killer

****

Chapter Ten

Part 2

Wednesday – July 22nd - 7:30 PM

By the time Lee had wrapped up things at work, gone home and taken a nice cooling shower, it was going on seven that evening. He pulled the Corvette into Amanda's driveway and slid the transmission into park. Despite the frustrations of the day, he was looking forward to spending a little quality time alone, with his wife.

She greeted him at the door, her hair pulled up in a ponytail and wearing a cute little tank top and shorts.

"Hi ya toots," he told her as he leaned down and kissed her.

"Hello," she told him.

The sound of Amanda's voice immediately raised concerned to Lee.

"You getting a sore throat?" he asked.

Amanda shrugged as she tugged him inside the door.

"My allergies are bothering me," she told him as she took his hand and began leading him to the kitchen.

"Okay, I know the freshman class was a royal pain today, but I didn't realize that they had become horses'."

"Lee," she admonished him before his finished his thought. "And no, for the record I was not anywhere near horses."

"I thought that's all that you were allergic to," he said as they fell into unison putting the plates on the table and getting dinner out.

"Apparently not," Amanda told him as she began pouring iced tea into glasses for them.

"What, no wine?" he asked her.

"Not with the allergy medicine I've been taking."

"Yeah, good idea," he told her.

He watched her as she put the last of the food on the table, taking note of everything from her tanned long legs to the way her shorts fit her cute little bottom. Lee had also taken note of the fact that they had been alone, in the house, for nearly ten minutes and that they both were still dressed.

In fact, Amanda seemed much more focused on dinner than dessert and Lee had to acknowledge that he probably had some major groveling to do.

"Ah, Amanda," he began. "About today."

"We need to talk," she told him at the same time.

"Yeah," Lee agreed.


	14. Chapter 10: Part 3

The Silent Killer

****

Chapter Ten

****

Chapter Ten

Part 3

Wednesday – July 22nd - 7:30 PM

Rhonda leaned back against the phone booth glass, waiting impatiently to be transferred or even acknowledged. Finally, a female voice came back on the phone line, only to inform her that Lee Stetson was not in the office.

"Well, can you leave him a message?"

"Go ahead," the detached voice told her.

"Let him know that it's Rhonda and that the word is, TSK is causing them to drop. I didn't hear what or who, yet. If I hear anything more, I'll let him know."

"Got it. Anything else?"

"No, no, just please make sure that he gets it as soon as he comes back in."

"Mr. Stetson checks his messages regularly," the voice told her.

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks."

Rhonda hung up the phone and looked out the booth glass onto the busy street. There was something about all of this that wasn't sitting very well with her. Sure, she was no agent, but she'd heard enough from the Russians over the past few years to know when they thought they had something big over the Americans.

"Damn," she muttered. "I just know this is gonna suck, big time. The only problem is, I don't know what it is."

She left the phone booth and headed back to where her dark green Pinto was parked. Hopefully, Scarecrow would be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. If not, Rhonda had the distinct impression that there were a lot of people in some very big trouble.


	15. Chapter 10: Part 4

The Silent Killer

****

Chapter Ten

Part 4

Amanda leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Lee, it's been five months," she told him.

"I know," he agreed.

"Do you? Do you know how frustrated I am? I've worked hard to get to where I am," she said as she looked at him with dark intense eyes. "Or, should I say where I was?"

"Amanda," Lee began.

"No," she interrupted him. "The Agency was wonderful, they allowed you time to go back and forth between here and California. Beaman videotaped lectures so I wouldn't fall behind, Billy adjusted my schedule so I could make classes up, so that I could work part-time and deal with Jamie and Phillip and everything else. Everybody kept telling me to be patient, to give it time and I did. But now that I've been cleared for field duty and I'm back to full-time, nobody seems to have the guts to let me do what I want."

"Amanda," he tried to interrupt.

"No, you're gonna listen to me. I don't mind helping Beaman, I really don't and I'm flattered that Billy thinks enough of me to let me help in that position. But I didn't work this hard; I didn't lie to my Mother and my children and lead this double life just so that I could end up teaching. I do not want to be like Beaman."

"Trust me, you are nothing like Beaman," Lee informed her, waggling his eyes as he looked at her.

"Don't even try it," Amanda warned as she moved from the counter to the refrigerator. Then, before she opened the door, she turned around to Lee.

"Lee, I have good instincts, we work well together. I do not like being chained to a desk. When do I get the chance to prove that I can do it?"

"Hey," he said as he walked over to her and pulled her into his arms.

"I feel like even my ex-husband is on it," she told him with a frown.

"Okay, so Joe and I have had a few brief chats," Lee admitted. "But Amanda, can you blame us? You said it yourself earlier today; there aren't any second chances when you are out there. We almost lost you, I almost lost you."

"How many times have I nearly lost you?" Amanda asked him pointedly. "Do I ask you to sit behind a desk?"

Lee shook his head.

"No."

"I'm good at what I do and what I want to do is watch your back, just like I've always done."

Lee leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I promise to try and be more understanding and open. I can't guarantee I'm going to like the idea but I won't lie to you and say that I can adjust overnight either."

"It's been five months," Amanda reminded him.

"Amanda, I love you," Lee told her. "In five months we've gone from being two single people to two married people, with a botched honeymoon, your youngest son finally opening up to me, your mother dropping hints left and right and I can actually have a conversation with Joe now and then."

Amanda smiled at him.

"I'm not in love with Joe," she reminded him. "And Joe is not my partner at work and I do not get to see my partner enough at work to suit me."

"You better not be in love with Joe," he teased her as he clearly recognized his own words coming right back at him. He reached out and caressed her cheek.

"My point is, we've both had to have a lot of patience with this marriage and your boys and with work. All I'm asking is for you to be patient with us, okay? You may be ready to go back, but we're not quite there yet, okay?"

"Will you ever be ready?" Amanda asked him quietly.

"Beaman's back next week," Lee told her. "Now, I can't promise what's going to happen in the field, but I will promise that whatever assignments come up, we'll at least sit down and talk about it before I try to chain you to a desk. Deal?"

Amanda looked at him, as though seriously considering his offer. Then she sniffled.

"Deal. Now, let's eat before it gets cold. And then, I can watch your back."

"Mmm, promises Mrs. Stetson, promises."


	16. Chapter Eleven

The Silent Killer

Chapter Eleven

Part 1

Stanley Harper, of the National Security Council, was just packing up the still unfinished business on his desk in preparation to go home for the evening. That's when the telephone on his desk rang.

At first, he didn't believe what he was hearing.

And then, he was shocked.

Greg Meyers had to be one of the most athletic men he'd ever met. The man had lived, breathed and even slept fitness.

After taking a few seconds to absorb the information, for a few seconds was all the luxury that any of them ever had in this business; he slipped into total agent mode and began running down the protocol for the situation.

The body would be taken to the appropriate location and an autopsy performed. Greg's wife, Shelby, would be brought in to see if she could offer any helpful slivers of information.

Though Stanley doubted it, as he knew from speaking to Greg that Mrs. Meyers had been away on a business trip.

Something just wasn't sitting right here. Stanley could feel it in his bones just as surely as, when on inclement weather days, he could still feel the occasional pain in his lower left leg where he had taken a bullet years ago.

****

Part 2

Lee Stetson had gone through the house on Maplewood Drive, ensuring that everything was locked up and settled for the night. Then, he ran up the stairs to the bedroom where he knew his wife was waiting. She was in the bathroom, so he took the time to pull back the comforter and fluff the pillows.

Amanda came out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a little black shirt that gave him an enticing view of her long legs and hinted at what may or may not have been underneath.

'Hi there," she told him.

Lee went to her and pulled her into his arms, kissing her softly until her sniffling caused them to break the kiss.

"Amanda," he chuckled. "What am I going to do with you?"

"I took some more allergy medicine," she admitted.

"I don't think it's helping, in fact, I think you're getting worse. Are you sure that you're not catching a cold?"

"Lee, I'm fine. Quit worrying."

"I'm you're husband, I'm supposed to worry."

"You're my husband and we're supposed to be making love. I've missed you," Amanda said as she settled against him and sighed.

"I've missed you too," he told her as his lips lowered, claiming her in a sweet kiss that easily took her breath away.

Amanda wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing as close as she could to his hard body. Lee didn't waste the opportunity. Stretched against him as she was, the little shirt had lifted and his hands found her bare bottom. His palms quickly settled upon her bare flesh, cupping her gently while their mouths once again met.

Lips parted and tongues entangled until the barely glowing embers of their passion that had been held at bay for nearly a week quickly engulfed into a passionate blaze.

He lifted, she wrapped her legs around him, and he carried her to the bed, scarcely missing a beat in between kisses.

They fell down onto her soft mattress, their soft laughter filling the room.

"Are you're up to this?" Lee asked her.

"It's just the sniffles," Amanda told him while moving to straddle her husband's body to prove her point. The she lowered her head until her lips had claimed his.

The feel of her hands on his chest, the taste of mint on her breath as she kissed him hungrily almost chased his worries away. And, when they finally broke apart, she gazed down at him with those sparkling brown eyes that reflected the magic of the chemistry that they shared.

"I want to make love to you," she told him with determination, a tone that clearly told him the issue was not up for debate. "Lots of people still make love when they've got a cold. It can be done."

Lee watched as she began pulling the shirt over head, tossing it carelessly behind her and revealing her now naked body totally for his eyes only.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She ran her hands down his chest until her fingers reached the button on his jeans.

"I'm positive," Amanda smiled down at him as she lightly scraped her fingers down the bulge that had revealed itself to her. "Very nice," she purred.

"We'll make love on one condition," Lee told her.

"What?" she laughed.

"If you're not feeling better in the morning, you stop by Kelford's office first thing in the morning."

"I can live with that," Amanda told him. "What I can't live with is all of these clothes you still have on."

Lee chuckled. "That we can take care of."

"I was counting on it big fella," Amanda told him, even as she sniffled again.


	17. Chapter Twelve

The Silent Killer

Chapter Twelve

Joe King sat back around the blazing campfire that they had started and relaxed as he listened to his sons. They certainly did seem to be enjoying themselves and he had to admit that he was as well.

Once they had gotten out of the DC area and all of the traffic, the remainder of the drive up to the lake had been enjoyable. There was something to be said for the quiet and sedate country life.

They had stopped once, for lunch, at the Breezewood Turnpike Exchange, grabbing hamburgers and sodas at one of the fast food restaurants. An hour later they had arrived at the cabin and the rest of the day had been nothing but fun.

They'd quickly stowed their gear in the cabin and the boys had chuckled that they didn't have to unpack it just like their mother would have insisted before the fun began. Joe figured there would be time later to do that.

The rest of the afternoon had been spent swimming in the lake. For dinner, they'd roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. Food just seemed to taste better and time had seemed to slow down, with the hectic bustle of the city far behind them.

Now, his sons were splashing in the lake as the last rays of sunshine were falling down behind the trees and mountains. Their youthful laughter filled the air.

Joe sipped his cola and grinned.

There was just something about the country air and the peacefulness of the lake. He felt years younger than he actually was. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they weren't on any agenda other than to have a good time, or, maybe it was the serenity of the area.

Maybe, he chuckled softly to himself; it was the fact that he wasn't being dragged into wedding plans.

He loved Carrie, he really did. But he'd never been a big fan of elaborate ceremony. He liked things simple and uncomplicated. But, Amanda was right. This was Carrie's first wedding and she did deserve exactly what she wanted. Now, if only she could persuade her mother that the bridesmaid dresses would look much better in some color other than that vibrant mauve.

Thank goodness Carrie had practically insisted he take this little vacation with his sons. She may have been raised an only child but Carrie seemed to know instinctively what children needed. That was probably why she made such an excellent teacher.

Of course, she had also told Joe that she didn't want him to see her violent side, and that, she had teased, was going to come out soon, very soon, if her mother didn't cease her attempts at planning the wedding for her only daughter.

Mothers, the world over, were probably all the same, Joe reasoned. They wanted what was best for their children. His own mother had been that way, Amanda's mother was definitely that way, and he even saw it in Amanda. Though she seemed to have a more gentle and quiet approach about it.

As he watched their sons frolic in the lake, he let his thoughts drift to his ex-wife. She was an excellent mother, in his book, and he knew that couldn't have been easy on her. Especially since he'd left her to pursue his own dreams.

Surprisingly, she hadn't held a grudge. If anything their relationship was better now. Maybe it had to do with the lack of tension that had existed in the last few years of their marriage or, maybe it had to do more with the changes that had taken place with her.

She was certainly not the same woman that he had married or divorced. The changes that had taken place after their divorce had only been positive, if not quite a bit shocking. He could still remember the day that they had mutually agreed to divorce. If someone had told him then that his wife would end up working as a Federal agent he'd have probably suggested that they see a psychiatrist.

If someone had told him that she'd be the one to first take the steps in moving onward with her life after their divorce, he would have shaken his head in doubt. His Amanda, the one that he married, had had more of a timid nature about her and had seemed so focused on being little more than the perfect mother.

Oh, she was stubborn and determined; he'd give her that. And those qualities were the very ones that had probably helped her in dealing with their divorce as well as she had.

But, when all was said and done, the present Amanda was far removed from the young girl that he had fallen in love with and she was nothing like the young fiancée he had brought to the lake that one summer.

He smiled at the memory; Amanda soaking wet, wearing that little turquoise two-piece bathing suit and her cheeks rosy from being kissed by the summer sun. Her laughter as they had played in the water, her shy smiles as they had sat huddled beneath a blanket in front of a campfire much like the one he sat in front of now. And one beautiful evening under the starry sky when his fiancée had been introduced to the pleasures of lovemaking.

Joe was so lost in reminiscing that it took Phillip's voice several moments to break through.

"DAD!"

"What?" Joe laughed at himself and at the odd look on his son's face.

"I asked you if you knew where the allergy medicine was?"

"You mom packed it in the blue duffel bag, along with all of the other first aid stuff. Just like always," Joe told him.

"Good, because I keep sneezing," Phillip told him.

Joe frowned. Since when did his eldest son suffer from allergies?


	18. Chapter Thirteen

**__**

Author's note:

Due to the romantic nature of portions upcoming, **some** content has been deleted for the FF version to maintain an appropriate rating status. The deletions do not, in any way, affect the plot or outcome of this fictional work.

If you are reading this on the Wicky, then you have established the appropriate security credentials to view these romantic scenes. If you are reading this on FF and you would like to view these portions, please visit the Wicky.

You **must** be at least 18 years of age to do so. Trust me, we have our ways. Violators will receive punishment, the least of which will be listening to me sing while under the influence of Mountain Dew (and I sing country!)

Seriously though, it is not my place to provide mature reading for those individuals who don't need to be reading it.

Also, I just chose a hospital for the autopsy from a yellow pages list, mostly because the name sounded impressive enough to me to be plausible. If anyone else knows of a better choice, just let me know and I will gladly change it, free of charge.

SMK

The Silent Killer

Chapter Thirteen

Part 1

"We'll make love on one condition," Lee told Amanda.

"What?" she laughed.

"If you're not feeling better in the morning, you stop by Kelford's office first thing in the morning."

"I can live with that," Amanda told him. "What I can't live with is all of these clothes you still have on."

Lee chuckled. "That we can take care of."

"I was counting on it, big fella," Amanda told him, even as she sniffled again.

Lee smiled at her and then shook his head.

"I've got an idea," he told her.

"Oh?"

He watched in amusement as Amanda's dark eyes widened with curiosity.

"First, you have to get off of me," Lee told her.

"I don't think I like this idea," she informed him.

"Trust me?"

After a moment of debate, Amanda relented.

"Okay," she said as she scooted off of her husband.

Lee first sat up, then stood up. Then he stripped off every last piece of clothing that he had been wearing while Amanda moved to sit on her knees and watched her husband's impromptu strip show with obvious delight.

"Maybe I will like this idea," Amanda said as she sniffled again.

****

Part 2

****

Georgetown University Hospital – 9:45 PM

The body of Greg Meyers had arrived at the hospital and the clerk on duty was beginning to process the paperwork to schedule his autopsy for later that night.

She already knew that she would be assigning the corpse to Mindleton and Lawson and that they were going to love her for this one. Especially since this one was Federal and the circumstances surrounding the deceased's state of departure were unclear.

Her long, vibrantly painted red nails clacked against the keyboard as she began entering in the data to the newly departed's final file. She hummed a nameless tune as she worked, obviously unfazed by the fact that a dead body had just been rolled by her.

She chuckled as she began printing out the list of forms that would accompany the expired one and his folder throughout the process.

Lots of forms, in triplicate.

Yeah, Mindy and Lawty, as she had affectionately nicknamed them, were going to love her to death for this one.

She placed the folder in the bin that resided on the top corner of her workstation and then jotted down the patient's medical record number onto the log of awaiting cadavers. There were two more recently departed residing in line before this one, which meant that the boys would not get to him until after their lunch break.

Jenny Sue Chambers chuckled to herself.

She didn't think the dude was going to be in a hurry to be going anywhere else, unless he'd earned a prime spot in the Shangri-La of the afterlife.

Amused with herself, she picked up her Styrofoam cup of iced tea and swiveled in her chair to start filing the records from earlier in the shift, humming the latest hit from Bon Jovi, Wanted Dead or Alive.

****

Part 3

"Maybe I will like this idea," Amanda said as she sniffled again.

"I think you will," Lee told her.

Then he placed his hands on her shoulders and very lightly pushed her back down on the bed. Then, flashing her the infamous Stetson grin, he knelt down over her.

"I love you, Mrs. Stetson," he told her as he placed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose.

"I love you," she replied back.

Lee had never been able to deny Amanda anything and tonight was no exception. The honesty in her voice and the glimmer of passion in her eyes were more than enough to make sure he accommodated his Amanda's every wish.

The husband that he had become, the man who wanted nothing more than to protect her had already chosen his plan of attack. He would make slow, luxurious love to her, but only because she insisted that she was well enough to do so.

Then, as if it were a lazy Sunday afternoon with nobody or any thing to intrude upon their private haven, he began to place a series of light kisses upon her lips.

She shivered as warm tingles of excitement began to flow through her body in response to his loving caresses.

For one blissful moment in time, everything was forgotten as Lee lovingly continued, coaxing his wife to the point of no return. He was rewarded by her soft moans that reassured him that he was doing exactly what he had intended.

They began to move together slowly, exquisitely, in a magical dance that they called their own.

Amanda thought that her husband had never felt as wonderful as he did right now. He seemed to fill her more completely, if that was possible, than ever before.

She felt his mouth upon hers, his lips caressing hers in a hungry fashion until she seemed to lose all sense of everything except him. Her husband, the man whose hands were skimming her body, her partner, who was leaving trails of hot breath against her skin with every kiss. He was the love of her life, the man who never ceased to amaze her with the depths of his passion when they were totally alone in the universe.

The protector inside him had planned on nothing more than a gentle lovemaking but her little moans and soft pleas became Lee's undoing. The feeling of her slender body beneath him, her hands weaving through his hair and along his back in mindless sensual patterns threw the lazy theory out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Partners in more ways than one, they came together and for one moment it was blissful magic as their universe seemed to turn inside and out.


	19. Chapter Fourteen Part 1

SMK

The Silent Killer

Chapter Fourteen

Part 1

****

Georgetown University Hospital – 11:45 PM

"Well, that wraps up Juan Carlo de es Nomoro," Sonny Lawson said with a chuckle as he and his coworker strode through the swinging doors that took them back into the little office area.

Tony Mindleton shook his head at Sonny's warped humor and was about to reply back to him when both men stopped dead in their tracks.

The night clerk, one Jenny Sue Chambers, was seated on the floor in traditional yoga posture and making odd little noises that seemed to be coming from her mouth.

Of course, Jenny Sue was not what either of them would term normal. She was in her mid-twenties, studying to be an accountant by day and working the graveyard shift by night. They had gone through five night clerks in less than two years; something to do with the misguided belief that the place was haunted by ghosts.

Jenny Sue, despite her wacky persona, didn't believe in ghosts. She did, however, believe in massive quantities of cold caffeine, a steady diet of Bon Jovi and currently seemed to be having a love affair with products made by Loreal.

Tonight she was sporting a short spiky hairdo that Lawson, to the best of his estimates figured was homage to either Cyndi Lauper or Madonna. The vibrant streaks of hot pink through the blonde locks seemed to lean more towards Lauper.

"Uhm, Jenny," Mindleton cleared his throat, "ah, what are you doing?"

Inhaling deeply and then exhaling slowly, she opened her big green eyes to look at him.

"Bad karma," she told him as if that made all the sense in the world.

Both men looked at one another, obviously confused.

"Huh?" Tony asked.

"I am telling you boys, there is bad karma in here tonight. I was chanting to ward it off."

Tony snickered.

"Sweet cheeks, trust me, there is no such thing as bad karma in here. Bad hair, yeah, bad karma, no."

Jenny Sue gave him a wicked glare.

"Suit yourselves," she told him as she slowly stood up and stretched her arms overhead, locking her fingers over the top of her head and closing her eyes again.

Then, much to the dismay of both men, she started chanting again.

Sonny shrugged and then proceeded to pick up the log.

"Yikes," he grumbled.

"What?"

"We've got a Fed, totally dead, next in line."

"Damn, would ya look at that folder?"

Tony shook his head in disgust.

"This is where our tax money goes, to fill out useless triplicate versions that repeat the same thing over and over, in about a hundred different ways. What's his scoop?"

"Found deceased, at home, by wife, upon her return from business trip," Sonny answered him after glancing at the chart.

"Age?"

"Forty-four."

"I bet you three kegs of Coors, heart attack," Tony said.

"Wife away, the husband did play, too bad the old bud couldn't stay."

"You both are disgusting," Jenny Sue mumbled.

"And you love us both," they echoed together.

"In your dreams," she retorted.

"Well, Mr. Fed a la the dead ain't going anywhere and my tum-tum is saying feed me," Sonny said.

"Might as well. We'll be here with him the rest of the evening," Tony said.

"You want anything, sweet cheeks?" Sonny asked Jenny Sue who had now returned to her computer and was clacking away at the keyboard.

"Maybe some holy water and a stake," she quipped.

"Chicken," Tony teased.

"Woohooo," Sonny moaned, trying to be a ghost.

"It isn't any wonder you don't keep a girl any longer than one night, if that's what you sound like," Jenny Sue told him. "Scat, go eat. Then get back here and dispense with the Fed. I tell ya, I don't like it, he's bad news."

"He's dead, girl. He ain't hurting anything. You've been watching too many of those weird movies on that crazy sci-fi channel again."

Jenny Sue ignored them both, obviously more interested in refilling her printer with greenbar paper and singing Like A Virgin. If she noticed them slip out of the room, she didn't acknowledge it.


	20. Chapter 14: Part 2

The Silent Killer

Chapter Fourteen

Part 2

TP Aquinas was sitting at his dining room table, surrounded by a stack of books, writing tablets, a large cup that was now serving as a pen holder, and a very large glass of ice water.

A floor fan sat not too far from him, rotating back and forth as it blew air across the room. It was a pitiful and not nearly productive enough means to try and keep the room cool, but TP had learned long ago that sometimes mankind had to improvise with what they had on hand.

Besides, he reasoned to himself, the repairman would be out in the morning and then he would have a working air conditioning unit again. He imagined that the repair business was booming right now, along with the sale of cooling units.

DC could get hot and stay hot this time of year, that was for sure.

A glance at his watch told him that it was just shortly after ten but he was not anywhere close to being ready to call it a night. He was in the middle of a research project and besides, if he was going to be uncomfortably hot, he might as well put his time to good usage.

He sat there, for a few moments, quietly reading until the ringing of the telephone interrupted him.

"TP Aquinas," he answered.

"Yes, well, good evening to you too Garth. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Really? That sounds promising, my boy, quite promising indeed."

"Yes, yes. No worries, I'm doing a little homework myself."

"I'll be waiting."

He hung up the phone and then, TP Aquinas frowned with concern.

Garth was one of a trio, three young men who all came from very affluent homes in the area. The other two were Bentley and Muffin, though he didn't know why the latter was called that and, then again, he wasn't sure that he wanted to know.

What he did want to know was what they had stumbled in to, or rather, if they could stumble more. All three of them were computer wizards, able to hack into systems that had been deemed impenetrable. Not much was considered out of reach with these three and TP thanked the heavens that they worked for the right side of justice.

They were young and bright and they just might have stumbled onto a clue that would assist TP's longtime friend, Scarecrow.

"Well, my boy, you told me to overturn some rocks. Now, we shall see what is to be discovered under them."


	21. Chapter 14: Part 3

The Silent Killer

Chapter Fourteen

Part 3

The bedroom was quiet, except for the sounds of their breathing and his fingers playing through the silky strands of her dark hair. It was these moments that Lee treasured, the quiet aftermath of their lovemaking, when all seemed right with the world and within his soul.

A time when he had Amanda all to himself and could, quite selfishly, refuse to share her with anyone. Sometimes, in these quiet moments, they talked and shared the private worries that they refused to acknowledge at any other time of the day.

Other times, they would just be, doing nothing, saying nothing, just lying close to one another. Tonight, it would seem, they were both in a state of nothing.

Well, almost nothing.

Amanda was doing her best to try and hide her sniffling and throat clearing from him. Lee Stetson however, had been trained by the best. There was not much that could be pulled over the Scarecrow and his wife was certainly not accomplishing it now.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" he asked her, his voice filled with concern.

"No," she croaked. "I'm fine."

"Amanda Stetson, you are coming down with a cold."

She coughed in response.

"Scratch that. You have a cold, you definitely have a cold."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you worry too much?"

Lee laughed.

"It's my patriotic duty."

Amanda's reply was to pull out of his embrace and then sit up, pulling the sheet up with her in a half-hearted attempt at modesty.

Lee sat up with her and waited for her to clear her throat, yet again.

"I think I'm going to make a cup of tea, that should help clear my throat," she told him.

"No, you stay in bed. Let me fix it for you," Lee told her.

"Would you," she smiled at him.

Lee leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"For you, my beautiful wife, I would move mountains."

"Egotistical," Amanda whispered.

"Figure of speech," he told her as he shimmied back into his jeans. "You want sugar?"

"Just a little. There's some lemon in the refrigerator. Would you squeeze some of that in it for me?"

Lee smiled at her.

"And I'll even squeeze lemons for you," he chuckled.

Amanda waited till he left the room and then slid out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom. Once glance in the mirror and she groaned.

Her dark eyes were showing signs of redness and dark circles had become evident under her eyes. And her hair, well, her hair was in its usual shape of distress after their lovemaking.

She smiled at the thought.

She may be miserable and she might be congested but she'd just experienced the best lovemaking of her life.

Another fit of coughing overtook her and this time, when it subsided, she frowned. That had not felt very good, she thought.

"Oh, do not settle in my chest," she mumbled. "That's the last thing I need. Lee will put me under house arrest and I'll be saying goodbye to my career."

She blew her nose and then went back to the bed, to await her husband, her tea and morning's light.

As much as Amanda Stetson had learned, over the past few months and much to her husband's great amusement, to despise physicians, she was more than willing to concede with him that by morning she would, indeed, need to be making a stop in Kelford's office.


	22. Chapter 15

SMK

The Silent Killer

Chapter Fifteen

Inside her apartment, Francine Desmond tossed and turned on her bed. One minute she was cold, the next she was hot. Her head was throbbing, her throat was raw, and she felt as though she had been run over by an army tank.

Finally, in desperation, she slid out of her bed and made her way to the kitchen. The glass of water that she poured for herself was downed rapidly, along with a tablespoon of yucky tasting cold medicine.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked herself as she made her way back to the bedroom.

She glanced at her bedside clock and took notice of the time, one forty-five in the morning. For some reason, she calculated the time on the West Coast and wondered for a moment if her mother was still up.

It had been several weeks since she had called home, not that that was an unusual occurrence. Her mother had long ago given up on dependability as far as her only child was concerned when it came to keeping in contact.

Francine sniffled, coughed and then frowned. It had been even longer since she had been home. She didn't go very often and, when she did, she tried to schedule when her father was not anywhere near. Suddenly, Francine had the urge to go home and visit, to visit both of them.

"I must really be sick," she mumbled as she sat back down on her bed and attempted to decide if she wanted to pull the covers up or keep them off. While she was thinking about it, her eyes settled on the chair in the corner. There, like always, resided the brown teddy bear that had been a birthday present for her sixteenth birthday.

She fondly remembered how her mother had tried to make up for the lack of Francine's father not being there. Of course, by the time Francine had turned sixteen, she scarcely cared if the man was around or not.

In the end, his presence had not mattered. Her mother had made that particular birthday one of the best. Francine slid off the bed and padded over to the chair. She picked up the bear lovingly and smiled at the worn pink ribbon around his throat.

On that particular birthday, the ribbon had been brand new, not faded and had carried what Francine would always consider one of the best surprises she'd ever had.

Her mother had looped a key with the ribbon, so that it hung around the bear's neck.

It had been the key to Francine's first car and her mother had picked it out with particular care. She had obviously listened to her teenage daughter's random comments for the car had been exactly the color and model that Francine would have picked.

And it had come from her mother, along with the teddy bear.

She no longer had the car, but she still had the bear and the memories and her mother.

Keeping the bear close to her chest, Francine returned back to her bed.

When sleep finally came, restless as it was, the bear was still cradled in her arms.


	23. Chapter 16: Part 1

****

Author's Note: It's kinda hard to write an autopsy scene and avoid getting all tangled up in the technical jargon of keeping it realistically correct. I mean, you really don't need to know the details because most of us do know that they slice, peer, investigate and so forth. Or, think Quincy or any of the other crime shows on TV these days that give ya a glimpse of that sort of thing.

So, I decided to switch the focus a little, tweak some, and give the story a little more flavor, if you will, without getting all bogged down.

Let me know if the following scenes worked for you or if they didn't.

Enjoy!

SMK

The Silent Killer

Chapter Sixteen

Part 1

****

Georgetown University Hospital – Thursday, July 23rd 1:45 AM

Sonny and his coworker, Tony came strolling back through the swinging doors, bickering about the advantages and disadvantages of taking late lunches. They stopped in mid-stride when they noticed Jenny Sue sitting there at her desk, hands folded primly in front of her, palms down, on the top of the desk. Her eyes were closed and she was definitely back to chanting.

"What is it this time?" Tony asked her. "You see a dead body stroll through?"

Jenny opened her eyes slowly and shook her head.

"Bad karma, bad karma, bad karma," she told them.

"She's lost it," Sonny said.

"Never had it," Tony added.

"Don't you feel it?" she asked them, her expression and her voice indicating to them both that she was well and truly serious.

"The only thing I feel is the two cheeseburgers loaded with onions that I ate for lunch," Tony said with a satisfied smile.

"Plug up your circ system," Jenny told him with a scowl.

"Yummy for the tummy," Tony informed her. "Besides, I'll leave you to eating those green plant stems and I'll take my beef any day."

The woman scowled at the both of them.

"Will you please get going and get him out of here. I'm telling you bad, bad, very bad karma."

"Yeah, we'll process him quick enough. Never fear, little Jenny Sue, I keep a stash of stakes and holy water in my locker."

He chuckled, then moved past her and through the doors to where the dead Fed awaited them.

Tony smiled at Jenny Sue, then followed through.

Sonny and Tony then began the process of getting the table ready for the autopsy.

Once the body was on the table, Sonny began talking to it, as if the deceased could hear him.

"Good evening Mr. Dead Fed. My name is Sonny, no not Bono, and I will be your medical examiner for the evening. And that, the crazy dude over there, is Tony, my assistant."

"Don't listen to him," Tony said as he rolled the cart with instruments over to the side of the exam table. I'm the sane one; he's the lunatic. Though, I guess you don't care. Now, I suppose you and everyone else would like to know why you were brought in as our guest tonight. Well, Mr. Dead Fed, allow us a brief moment or two and we will find out."

"Where shall we start?" Sonny asked, even though they both knew that the procedure was the same for every dead body.

"Male, Caucasian, mid to late forties, obviously not a participant in nude sunbathing, judging from the mixed tan lines and so forth. And look here, on the right shoulder. Scarring, I'd say bullet wound."

Sonny murmured his agreement.

"Appendectomy scar."

"Boring," Tony mumbled.

"Did we get the preliminary tox reports?"

Tony shook his head. "Lab items not present, yet."

"Well, let's begin, shall we? Now, Dead Fed, this won't hurt a bit."


	24. Chapter 16: Part 2

SMK

The Silent Killer

Chapter Sixteen

Part 2

Amanda Stetson slipped out of the embracing arms of her sleeping husband and, as quietly as she could, slid out from beneath the top sheet to get out of the bed.

Upon standing, she found herself swaying, just a little and she fought hard to stay upright. With light footsteps, she padded her way across the bedroom and into her bathroom. She closed the door slowly, not wanting to awaken Lee from his slumber.

Then, she flicked the light on, wincing as the brightness flashed across her eyes.

She leaned over the bathroom counter, her fingers gripping the cooling surface. She couldn't remember the last time that she had felt this lousy. Well, in all actuality she could but, on most days, she was able to repress those memories to the farthest recesses of her mind.

She didn't like to dwell upon something that she could do nothing to change now. In fact, right now, she felt too miserable to even care. And, upon looking in the mirror, she realized that she looked miserable as well.

Her eyes were glassy and her cheeks were flushed. She knew, without a doubt, that she was running a fever.

In an attempt to cool her hot skin, Amanda turned on the cold water and held a washcloth underneath the running water until it was soaked. Then, she lifted the damp cloth and swiped it across her face, relishing the feel of the cool dampness on her skin.

She followed this by squeezing the cloth on both front and back of her neck, allowing the cooling trickles to run down her heated flesh in attempt to provide some relief. This she followed by taking two aspirin and drinking almost an entire glass of water.

Finally, too exhausted to stay upright, she turned off the light and made her way back to the bed. She slipped under the cover sheet and nestled beside Lee. To her relief, he only muttered something unintelligible before reaching out with one arm and draping it across her.

Amanda closed her eyes and tried to stifle the urge to cough, not wanting to wake Lee. She found sleep elusive for awhile as she lay beside him, alternating between chills and hot flashes that made her uncomfortable while she forced herself to remain as still and quiet as possible.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she slipped into a restless sleep.

Unbeknownst to Amanda, her tossing and turning after that point did awaken her husband. Now it was his turn to lay there, in the dark and very much awake, as his being filled with an ever-increasing worry over the woman who meant everything in the world to him.


	25. Chapter 16: Part 3

SMK

The Silent Killer

Chapter Sixteen

Part 3

The two medical examiners joked as they worked through the autopsy, irrelevance seeming to be their norm.

The telephone ringing interrupted them and Tony strolled over to answer it, swiping off one surgical glove to pick up the receiver.

He listened to the voice on the other end, one of the lab techs assigned to doing the blood and toxicology workups for Meyers.

At almost the same instant in time, both men in the room became aware of the fact that this was no normal autopsy, that this dead Federal agent had met his demise under very disturbing and very chilling circumstances.

"Holy hell," mumbled Tony, as he comprehended what the lab technician was telling him.

"Oh my God," muttered Sonny as he took in the sight of the node that he was just beginning to extricate from the body.

Both men looked at one another, Tony's dark eyes meeting Sonny's green ones as the pieces of the mysterious puzzle snapped sharply into place.

At that very moment in time, each mirrored the other in expression and thought.

Their eyes were filled with disbelief and fear.

The body that they were working on, the Federal agent who had been found dead mysteriously on his bedroom floor had tested gram negative, his blood work revealing a bacterium known to members of the medical community as Yersinia pestis.

To the common person, one simple word was enough to trigger comprehension.

The plague.

Greg Meyers had died from a form of pneumonic plague, an infectious disease that, without early diagnosis and treatment, could lead to death. A disease that could be spread, a disease that could kill, a disease that could instill fear into even the bravest of men.

A disease that was now out there, lurking in the shadows of Washington, and they didn't have a clue as to how he had gotten it. They also had no idea of knowing how many people he may have been in contact with.

It had to be assumed that it was not an isolated case. It had to be assumed that, as of this moment, the nation's capital might very well be on the verge of the biggest epidemic it had ever known and that they were already losing precious time.

Time to isolate it.

Time to stop it.

Because it was now out there, skulking in the dark, already silently killing.


	26. Chapter 17

There are portions of the next few chapters that I owe a humble thanks to my high school microbiology teacher. It's amazing what, after all these years; the human mind can recall and utilize. And that was back in 1982 and 1983. Thank you, Mr. Burns. 

I'm not sure I should thank my English Honors teacher though. Then again, maybe I should. Just to prove to myself that I could and I am, despite all of those red penned comments.

TSK

Chapter Seventeen – Part 1

3:55 AM

Colonel Thomas McJohn sat down in an oversized leather chair of the office that had been loaned to him upon his unscheduled visit to Georgetown University Hospital. The chair's creaking was the only other noise in the hushed quiet of the night.

He wasn't even sure if he could hear his own heart beating, so loud were the voices and concerns in his head as protocols and implementation procedures all screamed at him to begin a course of action.

Everything that he ordered, from here on out, was of the highest importance. Each step, each directive, every little detail could mean the difference between life and death.

He wasn't sure that any physician, or even group of doctors, could ever be prepared for something like this. Sure, there were strategic layouts, there were manuals several binders thick, but, until you were faced with the situation, those items were nothing more than written words on pieces of paper.

McJohn was well versed in them, had helped write or revise many of them as new advances and changes had developed over the years. He had always found his field exciting and challenging as the science had grown by leaps and bounds from when he'd first studied to become a doctor.

For one moment, he was reminded of the silly arcade game, the one where the little hungry yellow creature worked his way through a maze, eating points and avoiding the ghosts.

In this case, the ghosts were symbolic of the disease that had been unleashed and he felt like that little yellow creature. Would he be able to do all that was needed in time, or, would he too, get trapped in a corner with no means of escape, only to have the ghosts surround him and abolish any hope of victory?

Taking another moment, he inhaled and exhaled slowly, forcing his mind to stop racing and for his body to calm. It might be a precious moment, but one that he needed. Effectiveness would not come as a result of rash ill preparedness.

And, Colonel McJohn, with all too much certainty, knew that he needed to be more prepared to deal with this than he had ever been before in his career.

Chapter Seventeen – Part 2

4:15 AM (Melrose Residence)

The harsh ringing of the telephone on the bedside stand roused Agency Section Chief William Melrose from an already troubled sleep that had been filled with nightmares of bickering agents and melting computers.

Wearily, he sat up in bed and reached for the phone, his eyes not yet open.

"Yes," he whispered into the receiver, tying to stay quiet so as not to awaken his wife, Jeannie.

"Morning William, Stanley Harper with the CIA."

"This isn't good, is it?" Billy grumbled quietly.

"Sorry to say, it isn't pleasure Melrose. You knew Grey Meyers, right?"

"Yes, he's the agent that was supposed to be working with Stetson on the ATAC review meeting."

"Was being the operative word here. His wife came home from a business trip late yesterday. She found him, dead on the bedroom floor."

"Anything yet?"

"I've just gotten the prelim autopsy results. We've got a major problem Billy."

"How major Stanley?"

"It might be too early to jump to this conclusion, but I think we've got a very real possibility of a Magna Alpha throughout the entire intelligence network."

Billy rubbed his hands wearily across his eyes.

"Who's working on it?"

"I've already called in the bioterrorism unit from Fort Detrik. They say McJohn's the best."

"He is, we've dealt with him before."

"I heard about that. Like I said, it's too early to tell. I should have more shortly."

"You can reach me at the office," Billy said, then hung up phone.

"William, what's the matter?"

He turned to find his wife sitting up in bed, looking at him with worried concern.

"I hope to God he's wrong," Billy said. "Jeannie, I have to go to the office. I'm sorry."

She hugged her husband.

"You know you don't have to apologize," she told him. "Now go, I'll be fine."

"I love you," he told her as he gave her a quick kiss.

"I love you too."


	27. Chapter 18

****

Chapter Eighteen

****

5:05 AM

William Melrose exited the elevator and made his way down the corridor to his office. At this time of the day, the Agency had an eerie quiet about it. There was little of the normal hustle and bustle; the chattering of voices from the agents that gave the building a personality was disturbingly missing.

As he walked, he took notice of the nighttime crew in the bullpen. At one desk, sat a young woman that he knew to be Cheryl Carrington. Intelligent, unflappable, patient, and married to her job ever since her husband had been killed in the line of duty with the DC police department.

He headed straight for her desk.

"Good morning, sir," she told him as she gave him a worried expression that questioned him being here at this early hour.

"Good morning Cheryl. Anything on the night wires?"

She smiled at him and then promptly handed him a thin folder.

"It's been relatively quiet," she informed him.

"Well, I have an assignment for you," Billy said.

"Yes, sir."

"I need for you to get me a list of everyone that has been in this building in the last seven days. I need the list yesterday. I need all agents accounted for, I don't care what part of the world they're in. And then, I need for someone to get hold of Dr. Smyth, ASAP."

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir. I can have Jan and Ana from data entry help, if that's okay, sir?"

"Get whoever you need. I'll be in my office."

"Right away, sir."

Billy turned, making a straight path to his office.

Right away Cheryl launched into her new assignment, though something churned in her stomach, a sure indicator that something major was looming in the horizon.


	28. Chapter 19

**TSK**

Chapter Nineteen – Part 1

****

5:20 AM

The telephone was ringing again; he could hear it from where he lay. Just as it had rang a few minutes earlier and still; he could nothing about it. Dimly he heard the answering machine pick it up and begin recording the message. It was too far away from where he lay to make out the words, but he was almost positive that he knew the voice.

It was someone he knew. Maybe they would come, he thought.

He heard the click as the call ended and closed his eyes. He couldn't put a name to the voice and yet, somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought that maybe the person would come.

He closed his eyes again, as he lay there on the cold tile of his bathroom floor, unable to even summon up enough strength to crawl back out to the bedroom.

Maybe was all he could hope for.

Maybe.

****

TSK

Chapter Nineteen – Part 2

****

5:20 AM

Once again, the call went to the answering machine and, once again, Billy left a coded message requesting Smyth to report in.

"I don't care if he did call in and put himself on an unscheduled leave," Billy grumbled after he hung up the phone.

Billy had no more than finished that sentence when his phone did ring. He snatched it up in his hand quickly, hoping that it was Smyth.

Instead, he found himself talking to McJohn.

He listened quietly, then grabbed his pen and began jotting notes down onto a legal pad. After nearly filling the entire page up, McJohn finished his list.

McJohn asked him if he had any questions.

"Yes, I do. I already know that I've got an unaccountable. If it were any of the other guys, I'd say he was out high timing it with some floozy and just ignoring his check-ins, but this is Dr. Smyth."

"Right. Thanks."

Billy hung up the phone and looked down at the list. He thought it was long and yet, he knew McJohn had a much longer list to deal with it.

"God help us," Billy prayed.

****

TSK

Chapter Nineteen – Part 3

Billy walked out into the bullpen and headed straight to the workstation where Cheryl Carrington was located. He noticed that she already had two assistants with her, Ana and Jan. The three women were already hard at work.

"Ladies," he greeted them.

"Good morning Mr. Melrose."

"Good morning, sir."

"I wish it was. I need your help. Do the three of you know what a Magna Alpha, double red, all birds to roost, ASAP means?"

"Yes, sir," Cheryl responded. "All employees need to return to the Agency immediately and we've obviously got something very big going down."

Billy nodded.

"As of right now, I need to contact each and every employee, from agents down to janitorial. We also need to check the logs of everyone who has come in this building in the last seven days. I need every name on those lists to file a PWS-15 immediately."

"What's a PWS-15?" Jan asked him.

"It's a personal whereabouts sheet. I need to know every where an employee has been, every person that they've come into contact with and I need it yesterday."

"Same for the outside visitors?" Ana inquired.

"Everybody. If I've got agents out in the field, if they have not been in the building or in contact with anyone who has been in the building in the last seven days, I need them to stay put. Isolate themselves until further notice."

"Right away," Cheryl responded.

"Oh, then I need every agent to contact each member of their network. Same rules apply. If they've been in personal contact with anybody from the intelligence community, CIA, FBI, any of the other departments, we need to know."

All three women nodded.

"Can I ask what's going on?" Ana said.

Billy sighed.

"I might as well tell you. The Agency is about to become an isolation facility. We've got the potential for a major epidemic and we're doing all we can to nip it in the bud. Once everyone is in the house or located, nobody leaves, nobody else comes in and then we all pray."

Billy handed her the list he jotted down.

"I need several copies of that made, please. You can each keep one, I need one, make additional."

Cheryl took the page from him.

"May I ask what kind of epidemic?"

Billy looked at all three women.

"The plague," he told them. "It's the plague."


	29. Chapter 20

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty – Part 1

****

6:00 AM

Billy growled as he listened to the recorded message on the other end of the line.

"Stetson, where the hell are you?"

Melrose hung up the phone. Did he even need to ask the question, he thought to himself. Lee wasn't working any late night assignments, he wasn't picking up his car phone and the apartment phone continued to go unanswered.

That left one place where the agent could be.

"4247 Maplewood Drive," Billy murmured as he picked up his coffee cup and took a quick sip of the beverage. "Why do I even ask? I should know better by now. He might as well just change his address and be done with it."

"Well, on to the next one. I'll give him and Amanda a little while longer."

He began dialing another number and then sat there, impatiently waiting for the owner to pick it up.

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty – Part 2

****

6:06 AM

Somewhere else in the DC metroplex, another telephone rang. And, when it didn't get picked up immediately, the caller called back until finally rewarded by an answer, though the voice sounded congested and miserable.

"Francine?"

"Yeah?"

"Let me guess, you're not feeling well."

"Frankly," Francine said as she ran her fingers under her nose and sniffled, "I feel like hell. Why are you calling me this early in the morning?

"Let's just say that I'm glad that I did."

"Well, I'm not," she paused to cough. "I'm going back to bed Billy. I don't care about lost data, I don't care about the Tyler Engineering check, and I just don't care."

"No!"

"No? I can't go back to bed?"

"No, you can't. Look, at least get dressed. I'm sending someone over for you right away."

"Billy," Francine whined. "I don't care about national security today. Come on, do I ever play hooky unless I'm really sick?"

"Francine, you're attendance is impeccable, I assure you," Billy sighed, then paused for a brief moment before telling her.

"I've issued a Magna Alpha alert, double red, all birds to the roost."

There was silence on her end for a few seconds.

"What!" she finally exclaimed before bursting into a coughing fit.

He waited patiently until she was done coughing before he continued.

"Just get dressed, please."

Francine let out a combination groan and shriek.

"The things I do for national security," she mumbled. "Fine, give me a few to take a shower and get dressed. Is the AC working yet?"

"On our floor, no," Billy answered her.

"Well, then I'm not dressing up," Francine told him. "And I might not even put on any makeup."

"You could come in you birthday suit and I wouldn't argue. Casual is fine, just be ready in half an hour."

With that, he hung up, leaving Francine to stare down at the receiver.

"It's going to be another day from hell," she croaked as she pulled herself up out of bed and made her way to the bathroom.

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty – Part 3

****

6:06 AM

Lee Stetson stood in front of the kitchen window, looking outside instead of inside. He'd lost count of the number of times that he had spied on Amanda's world from that particular vantage point over the years.

As he stood there, clad in nothing but a pair of jeans that he hadn't even bothered to zip, he observed and waited. He had gotten up a few moments ago and decided that coffee was going to be the first order of the day.

Despite the fact that Amanda's bed really was comfortable and that he had shared it with her, sleep had proved almost unobtainable. He couldn't fault Amanda, it wasn't her fault that she had gotten sick. But, her coughing and tossing had prevented Lee from slipping into any sort of a deep sleep.

There wasn't any doubt about it, he thought as he poured the hot liquid into his cup. Once she was up, she was headed straight into Kelford's office.

Lee put the glass coffeepot back into place on the burner, leaving enough of the beverage that if Amanda wanted a cup, she would have it.

And then, in the silence of Amanda's cheery kitchen, Lee Stetson sneezed.


	30. Chapter 21

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty-one

Part 1

****

6:15 AM

Jamie King hurried out of bed and set a new record for getting ready. He was eager to get the day started, which meant breakfast and then some hiking and some swimming and a whole list of things to do.

He tried once to wake Phillip up, but his brother only grumbled and then pulled the blanket up over his head.

Choosing to ignore him, Jamie sped to the little kitchen area of the cabin and began whipping out the eggs and bread and bacon. He was hungry and he was ready to the start the day. He even started coffee for his father, chuckling to himself over the weird attraction to the stuff that both of his parents had.

He didn't understand it himself, but then, they were grownups. Even his grandmother and Lee and Carrie liked the stuff, although they all seemed to like it with different junk mixed in.

Chuckling over the differences between the adults who figured prominently in his life, he began humming as he pulled the slices of bacon apart.

"This day is gonna be awesome!"

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty-one

Part 2

Lee had gone back upstairs and into Amanda's bedroom. He set his coffee cup down on her nightstand and then reached down to place a hand on her forehead. She definitely felt warm to him.

Grabbing his toiletry bag and coffee cup, he walked quietly into the bathroom and turned the shower on.

Because it was their habit, when they were alone in Amanda's home like this, they had turned off the ringer on her bedside phone. With the bedroom door closed and the shower water running, Lee never heard the phone downstairs.

It rang until the answering machine picked it up.

The caller did not leave a message, deciding that he would wait for a little bit and try again. After all, if they weren't picking up the phone, he was going to take that as a good sign and pray that he wasn't interrupting something that he really didn't want to know about.

Then again, this was Lee and Amanda.

"Oh dear."

TSK

Chapter Twenty-one

Part 3

Phillip King was still rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the kitchen, the smell of food very tempting.

He found his brother serving up ample portions of breakfast onto the plates.

"You made enough to feed an army, worm head," Phillip told him.

"You're hungry, right?"

"Well, yeah," Phillip replied after he thought about it.

"So there. Eat, goofus."

Joe King had heard his boys out in the kitchen and he ventured out, cautiously, to see what they were up to. For some reason, the story that Amanda had told him about their adventure with a volcano sprang to mind and so, he was greatly relieved to find that nothing more than breakfast had happened. Although, as he looked at the plates, it would seem that they might need to learn a little something about portions. Then again, Amanda had jokingly said that they seemed to be on a mission to digest everything in sight the past few weeks.

Maybe his ex-wife hadn't been joking.

"Good morning," he told them.

"Morning Dad," both boys replied in unison.

"I made breakfast," Jamie said proudly.

"So I see," Joe nodded as he wondered if they could possibly eat all of this.

"Yeah, the bacon's really good. He didn't burn it this time," Phillip said.

"I don't burn the bacon," Jamie retorted. "That's grandma, or was that Mom?"

"Beats me," Philip shrugged as he began piling egg and bacon onto his toast.

Joe watched in amusement as the yellow yolk began dripping down his eldest son's chin after he took a bite.

"I made coffee too," Jamie said.

"Thank you," Joe told him. "That's just what I needed. So you guys ready for a big day of fun?"

"Yeah!" Phillip exclaimed.

"Ready when you are," Jamie added.

"Good," Joe said as he sat down at the table.

"Any more bacon?" Phillip asked.

"In the pan," Jamie said as he began to make his own egg sandwich.

Phillip got up from his chair, sneezing all the way as he headed to the stove for additional helpings.

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty-one

Part 4

****

6:30 AM

Billy Melrose glanced up from the folder that he was looking at when he heard the knock at his door. It was Cheryl.

"Come in," he called out to her.

"This just came in via courier, for Scarecrow," she told him.

Billy took the package from her and thanked her. She left promptly, which was something a lot of them never seemed to do, leaving him to inspect it.

"From TP – marked urgent, urgent."

Billy sat it down on his desk, then glanced at his watch. It was now just after six-thirty. He really hated to do this, acknowledging that most of his best agents never really got enough down time, but in this instance, the stakes were too high.

He was just about to pick the phone up again, when it rang.

"Melrose."

William sat quietly as he listened to the voice on the other end.

"I see," he responded quietly after the voice finished.

"Keep me updated," he informed the caller.

Slowly, he replaced the receiver and then, for the longest time he just sat there, staring out the windows of his office.


	31. Chapter 22

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty-two

Part 1

****

6:40 AM

Lee Stetson had finished with his shower and shaving but he had not gotten dressed yet. Wearing nothing but the towel wrapped around his waist, he headed back out to the bedroom. If he'd finished just a moment earlier, he would have heard the telephone downstairs ringing.

He sat down on the bed, next to Amanda, and stroked her cheek lightly with his hand.

"Manda," he whispered her name softly.

"Hmm," she mumbled.

"Sweetheart, you might want to think about waking up," he told her.

"No," she replied, pulling the cover all the way up, hiding her beautiful face from her husband.

"Hey," he chuckled. "Come on Manda. The sooner I take you into Kelford's office, the sooner I can bring you home and tuck you right back into bed."

The muffled response she gave him was incomprehensible but Lee was positive that she was not agreeing with his logic.

"Amanda."

"Go..away," she told him.

"Gee, and after last night, I thought meant something to you," he told her teasingly.

That brought her back out from beneath the blanket, wearing the saddest expression Lee swore he had ever seen.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I just want to sleep."

Lee leaned down and kissed her lips lightly.

"I know you do, but trust me, by this evening you'll be feeling better. Kelford's always got good drugs."

Slowly, she struggled to sit up and Lee helped her, until she was cradled against his chest. He frowned as he could feel her slender body shake from coughing.

"You must feel miserable," he told her as he rubbed her back.

"Yeah," she told him.

"Why don't I go start a hot shower for you, okay?"

She raised her face and looked at him.

"I love you."

"Mrs. Stetson, I love you. Now let me go get that shower started for you."

****

Part 2

William Melrose sighed in frustration. He wasn't against personal time and he certainly had nothing against Lee and Amanda's private relationship, whatever it might be. But this, this was ridiculous.

Then he smiled to himself as an old memory of how he and Jeannie had been when they had first married.

Okay, so maybe Lee and Amanda weren't married, but this was the eighties and young people did do things differently. There was no doubt to the Section Chief that those two were hopelessly, far past gone, head-over-heels in love with one another.

If there had been any doubt in his mind, the changes that he had seen between them since Amanda's accident in California had erased them, certifying to him, at least, the true nature of the relationship.

Billy gave them credit. They tried, very hard, to maintain an aura of professionalism within the work place. There were very limited displays of public affection and even then, those were usually when they both believed nobody was looking.

But, all one had to do was look a little deeper and the signs were all there. Lee's persistence in keeping Amanda out of the field, their concern for one another, the fact that nine times out of ten Scarecrow was reachable at Amanda's house and not his apartment.

The only thing missing, as far as Billy was concerned, were the wedding rings. And even that, he didn't think was too far down the road. Billy wasn't exactly sure when it had happened, but, at some point, those two had finally come to their senses and acknowledged what he had seen a long time ago.

Maybe it had been during the Stemwinder case, when Amanda had, much to the surprise of many, gone right along with Scarecrow when he went on the run. If not, then Billy knew it had to have been either shortly before or after, because by the time Birol had kidnapped Amanda, there had been no doubt, in his eyes, that Lee Stetson was in love with the pretty brunette.

Along the way, after all of that, there had been other little signs, but the biggest telltale had to have been their simultaneous vacations in February.

"Nothing short of the end of civilization," Billy chuckled. "I believe he said something similar when I suggested pairing them together. It was only a matter of time."

And, speaking of time, Billy thought, they've had as much as I can give them. They either answer the phone this time around or I am sending an escort to bring them, in whatever condition the escort finds them.

"I just hope they're dressed," Billy mumbled as he picked up the phone and began dialing the number, yet again.


	32. Chapter 23

****

TSK

Chapter Twenty-three

Lee had gone down to the kitchen to have another cup of coffee while Amanda took a shower. He had just poured another cup when the phone rang.

"Hello."

"Billy?"

"Last I checked," Melrose answered him. "I tried to call you at home but when you didn't pick up or return my calls, I figured I could reach you here."

"So you decided to call me at Amanda's before seven?"

"Like I said, you obviously weren't sleeping at your apartment," Billy replied. "Lee, there's a situation, I need both of you in here, ASAP."

"Whoa, hold up Billy. The only place Amanda's going today is the doctor's office."

"What?" Billy's question was sharp.

"Yeah, she wasn't feeling too good yesterday afternoon, probably why she was so grumpy. She was up in the middle of the night taking cold medicine. I tried to tell her that it was more than just allergies, but she wouldn't listen."

"Damn!" Billy growled.

"What?" Lee asked.

"Look, you get her in here and you get her in now. And don't stop anywhere along the way."

"Billy, what's going on?"

"I'll brief you when you get here. Just get a move on. Oh, is there anybody else at home?"

"Well, I'm here, what do you think?" Lee asked him slightly sarcastically.

"I take it that's a negative?"

"Yeah, they're all out of town."

"Good," Billy's sigh of relief was audible enough that Lee heard it over the telephone line. That alone threw up warning flags, as if Lee wasn't already beginning to see them.

"Billy, what's going down?"

"Magna Alpha, double red, all birds to roost, ASAP."

Lee was about to reply when he heard a click and then the dial tone. For several moments he simply stood there, staring at the phone in his hand. He knew what all the codes stood for, but he'd never heard them all used together. He, like every other intelligence operative, had hoped he never would.

By the time Lee had recovered and gone upstairs, Amanda was just coming out of the shower. She made a straight line right for the bed, collapsing back down upon it.

"Come on sweetheart, we've got to get going or Billy will be sending out the troops," he told her.

"I want to go back to bed," she whined.

"I know, but you've got an appointment with Kelford and there's something big going down and we both need to be there."

Amanda sighed as she struggled to pull herself up.

"So much for being Mr. and Mrs. Stetson for a few days."

Lee sat down beside her on the bed.

"I will make it up to you, I promise."

Amanda wrapped her arms around her husband and for a few seconds, Lee allowed her the comfort of his embrace.

"I love you," she told him.

"I love you too and as much I enjoy looking at you wearing nothing but that towel, you need to get dressed."

"Yeah," she answered him.


	33. Chapter 24

****

Chapter Twenty-four

IFF

Upon her arrival at the Agency, Francine was immediately escorted to Dr. Kelford's office and told to take a seat. When Billy entered the room, several minutes later, she was still seated in the same chair and wearing a mixed expression of disgust and misery.

"I see you made it," he greeted her.

"Only to be greeted by the vampires," Francine responded to him.

Her scowling glance towards the nurse whose face was hidden behind a facemask was not missed by anyone in the room. Francine had intended it that way.

"I need your arm again," Dr. Kelford told her.

"Now what?" Francine looked first at the doctor, then towards her boss. Nobody was really telling anything. Poking and prodding, yes. Answers, well, she was not getting them.

"Billy, you want to fill me in here," she asked him. "First, you won't let me call in sick, then I'm greeted by the blood suckers and ouch! Damn, that hurt," she mumbled as she looked at the physician. "What the hell is going on here?"

"She's all yours," Kelford said. "Though I'd recommend her being in bed."

"Me too," she retorted before she began a coughing fit.

"And she will be," Billy said. "But I need a few minutes."

Dr. Kelford nodded.

"Only a few," he instructed Billy. Then he picked up a chart and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Billy pulled out the chair that had been under the desk and slid it around so that he could sit and face Francine. She deserved to know what was going on. She deserved to know what she'd been exposed to and she deserved to hear it coming from him.

He just wasn't sure how to tell her. There was no regulation manual that had an already pat and dry answer on informing your agents that they had been exposed to the plague.

For a moment, he recalled that visit to Amanda's house and the look upon both her face and Lee's when he'd informed them that Lee was carrying PD-2. He'd never wanted to see those types of expressions again, and yet, in this business, those looks were part and parcel. It came with the territory; it came with his title.

He'd been the bearer of bad tidings many times throughout his career. He wasn't even sure how many times; he'd lost count long, long ago. For once, just once, William Melrose wished that he could be the bearer of glad tidings.

Despite the fact that she felt miserable, Francine's surveying eyes did not miss the look on his face. She had been well trained in noticing details, no matter how imperceptible. She had known Billy for far too long. She'd worked in this business for a long time and, sick or not, she knew how to read her boss. She didn't have to be a well-trained agent to know that whatever he was going to tell her was not anything good.

He was contemplating his words, taking his time.

No doubt, she thought. This is not good.

"Francine, you remember when Lee was injected with PD-2?"

"Yeah," she responded slowly, already beginning to feel a cold chill forming in her stomach, like that little knot of dread that agents sometime get when they instinctively know the setup is bad and the outcome will be even worse.

"Well, it seems that there's been a variant of it unleashed within the intelligence community."

"You mean Agency wide?"

"Worse than that," Billy replied. He exhaled slowly, then stood up. He took several paces before stopping and turning back to face her.

"There's a very good chance that every branch of intelligence has been exposed."

"That's impossible."

"That's what we would have hoped. Greg Meyers, from the NSC was found dead. The preliminary autopsy results indicate that he was infected with a form of pneumonic plague."

"Wait a minute, he never showed to the meetings here."

"No, but he was at the meeting Monday morning."

"Smyth was at that meeting," Francine said. And then, even though Francine felt as if she only operating on less than half capacity, total realization hit her full on.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "When Amanda and I were leaving the other night, he came out of the elevator. He was sneezing nonstop."

Billy nodded.

"Probably contaminating everyone he came into contact with. That's what I've been exposed to? That's what we've all been exposed to? My God, Billy," she practically shrieked, or would have, if her throat hadn't been so sore.

Instead, she started coughing again, and Billy waited patiently, until she stopped, before he continued.

"I spoke with Lee right before I called you. My guess is Amanda's got it too."

"Billy, cut to the chase, how bad is this?"

"McJohn was called in last night. I'll gloss over the specifics; you need to be in bed. But, if caught early enough, the survival rate is very good. Potent antibiotics seem to do the trick. The catch here is to contain it before it gets out of control, before it gets to the public."

"Have we caught it soon enough. Can we contain it, can we do that?"

"The President is insisting that we have to."

Francine exhaled.

"Amanda?"

"Lee's bringing her in, should be here momentarily."

He watched as the blonde shivered and tried to control her coughing.

"Well, what can I do?" she asked him.

"Nothing. You're going to go to bed and get some rest."

"Come on Billy, you're gonna need some help."

"I need help, but I also need to know that my best agents are going to get well. Later, I'm gonna need it," he said it in a low tone.

"Tell me what you aren't saying," she instructed her superior.

"Smyth is an ICU unit, it doesn't look good."

"Oh," was all that she could say.

Billy moved to the door, stopping just before his hand turned the knob.

When he spoke, his tone was gentle. "I've got to get back to my office. You get some rest."

Francine watched as her Section Chief exited the room, looking like a man who suddenly bore the weight of the entire world on his shoulders.


	34. Chapter 25

**__**

Author's Note:

I have to extend a very huge thanks to Jan, whose help in the kitchen provided just the right seasoning to give this chapter the flavor that I was looking for but could not quite obtain.

LOL, there is no such thing as too many cooks in the kitchen.

Thank you so much Jan!

****

CHAPTER 25

Even after her husband had left, Jeannie Melrose had not been able to return to a peaceful sleep. She had tossed and she had turned. Finally, in frustration, even though the sun had yet to make an appearance in the still darkened skies before morning, Jeannie climbed out of bed.

"Darkened skies," she murmured while sipping her coffee.

"How appropriate."

Jeannie flitted about the already immaculate kitchen, wiping at spots that didn't really exist on the counter tops. For some reason, she had the urge to stay busy, as though activity of some sort would keep away whatever had reared its ugly head within her husband's world.

But, then the phone rang in the uneasy silence that existed between the twilight and the dawn, and, as she listened to her husband's words, a cold realization dawned upon her. Jeannie Melrose came to understand that it was far worse than she could possibly have imagined.

For, in the black skies of the night, a terror had arrived to roost at the Agency. A terror that had a mission, a mission to stay and grow, nesting within a home that it had not been welcomed into.

It was while William was informing her that an Agency doctor would be coming over to begin the series of precautionary antibiotics that an idea began to form in her mind.

She did not want to stay quarantined in her own house.

This time, Jeannie Melrose wanted to do something and so, she quite firmly told her husband as much.

And then, wise wife that she was, Jeannie held the phone away from her ear while he ranted in that booming voice of his, the one that she knew demanded respect from his agents. But, she was no agent and so, she listened quietly until his ranting ceased.

Then, Jeannie used her calm voice of reasoning, until finally, his male mind bent to her reasonable female logic.

Her husband was going to need the help and she simply couldn't stay home and do nothing.

Jeannie knew some of the agents, and those that she didn't, well Billy's tales had made them seem like family anyhow.

Despite all the textbook mumbo jumbo that she knew the Agency spouted with regard to personal relationships, Jeannie Melrose knew one thing.

Her husband always knew when one of his agents was in trouble and, despite the mumbo jumbo, she knew that he cared.

"It would seem that this time, dear husband of mine, the entire family tree is in trouble."

And with that, the debate ended and her decision made, Jeannie went upstairs to pack a few things. She hoped to arrive before the sun had risen and, for once, she was going to do her part to help chase away the darkened skies that now clouded the horizon of those who so bravely protected in the name of freedom.


	35. Chapter 26

__

Again, Jan has been helping in the kitchen. She's a wizard with the spices. I hear she may whip up a batch of homemade chicken soup!

Mucho gracias, Senora Jan - a la master chef de la cocina :)

How's that for garbled espanol?

****

Chapter Twenty-six

****

PART 1

Lee Stetson knew that what he was seeing with his own eyes was very real and yet, his logical mind, the one that observed and analyzed every aspect regarding his job, was having a very hard time wrapping itself around the scene that was playing out in front of him. It seemed surreal to him, as if he were having an out of body experience, viewing the whole thing through someone else's eyes.

Guards, packing weapons and wearing the type of surgical face masks one would see inside a hospital, had greeted him upon their arrival. Clearance codes and identity checks were followed by a gloved hand that extended a legal sized envelope to him, accompanied by muffled instructions to complete everything once inside the Agency.

And only then, after all of that, was Lee granted access into the Agency, which seemed ludicrous to him, considering the fact that he had spent most of his adult working life within her walls.

The fact that his wife could hardly stand on her own two feet brought the realism front and center and suddenly, the entire scenario seemed to snap into sharp focus before his eyes. The guards waved him on and Lee, realizing that Amanda was close to collapsing, gently picked her up in his arms and carried her towards the one destination that he hoped would make things right.

What Lee and Amanda had not noticed, in his haste to get ready and in her cloudy ill mind, was that neither one of them had remembered to take off their wedding rings from the previous night.

****

SMK

__

From two separate kitchens, from around the world, the chefs bring you a little more of what I like to call, a recipe for disaster.

The flavor is good, the seasoning is right, and the plague rolls onward!

FYI - Mrs. Welsh's Colonial cooking contributed nothing to this.

****

PART 2

Joe King had to laugh as he watched Jamie race down the path towards the lake. There was something to be said for youthful exuberance on a beautiful summer's day.

His eldest son, Phillip, on the other hand, was slowly bringing up the rear and Joe turned to look at him, studying the quiet expression on his son's face.

"Phillip?"

"Yeah?"

"You okay son?"

The boy nodded, then sneezed.

"I swear, everyone has been sneezing," Joe said. "I would have hoped that getting away from the city would have helped. At least it hasn't been as dry up here."

"Just allergies, Dad," was Phillip's lackluster response.

"Did you take anything?"

Phillip gave his father a look, one that Joe had come to recognize very well. Lately, Phillip seemed to be going through a macho teenage stage and, thankfully, Amanda had shared her theory on how to deal with their son.

"Well, if you want to take something, let me know. I can always go back to the cabin and get it," Joe offered even as he kept on walking ahead of his son. Briefly acknowledged, suggestion tossed out, and then move onward. Hopefully his ex-wife was right.

"I don't need any crummy allergy medicine," Phillip told him. Then, as if to prove his point, he raced ahead of Joe, seemingly eager to now catch up with his younger brother.

Joe shook his head and chuckled as his son's actions so well mimicked his own during those long forgotten teenage years.

He continued walking at a leisurely pace behind his sons, enjoying the early morning that made Lake Raystown such a fabulous spot to get away from it all.

And then, as he watched the boys reach the edge of the lake where the water gently lapped the beach, Joe King sneezed.


	36. Chapter 27

****

CHAPTER 27

****

PART 1

The corridors of the Agency, once upon a time, had been the arena of international espionage, highly classified secrets, and hush-hush conversations involving national security. But, as Federal agent Scarecrow turned down the hallway that led to Doctor Kelford's office, while carrying his sick wife, the once familiar site seemed as foreign to him as the normality of life in suburbia once had been.

People, unknown faces to his trained eyes, ambled in the hallways. Faces that he would not have recognized anyway, for their features were hidden behind protective surgical masks.

Those that he did identify, fellow coworkers that he'd seen on a daily basis for what seemed a lifetime, had a haunted look. Many of them even shied away while he continued onward, his mission becoming more urgent with each step that he took, with each cough that he felt come from Amanda.

The feeling in the atmosphere was morose, the air was tinged with the smell of antiseptic, all of it reminding him of the one place that he hated and feared the most. With each step towards the doctor's office, Lee began to acknowledge the fact that the Agency, as he had known it, no longer existed.

It was no longer the place that some of the nation's best agents called home. The certainty of the situation hit him, as he observed these unknown faces that obviously belonged to medical personnel now intermingling with Agency employees.

That's when Scarecrow knew.

The Agency had become an isolation facility, a locale where the innocent had gathered to be diagnosed and, hopefully, cured.

The building that had been designed and constructed under so much secrecy, with every little aspect compartmentalized to avoid detection, no longer resembled a pyramid hidden away beneath the DC streets.

It was no longer a governmental building that housed a powerhouse of counterintelligence minds and patriotic individuals who died in the name of their country.

The building as he knew her no longer existed. She had become, Lee Stetson feared, an underground tomb, filled with people who were simply waiting to die.

And, among those innocent individuals, might very well be the woman who meant everything in the world to him. The woman that he carried tenderly in his arms and for whom he, once again, found himself praying for.

****

PART 2

Nelson Weston exhaled loudly, then coughed as he squished his cigarette into the nearly overflowing ashtray that graced his cluttered desk. Then, he looked up at the apartment complex super, his eyes clearly showing his exasperation at the younger man.

"Well, if there's no answer, then just open the damn unit," he told the thin man who stood before him.

"But," the super began to stammer.

"Look, it's very simple Toby. There's water dripping down into Mrs. Doyle's apartment. It's obviously coming from somewhere. That somewhere is in the unit above her. How hard is that to figure out?"

"But, sir, I don't think that nice Miss Lowry would like me to just enter her apartment," Toby told his boss.

"That nice Miss Lowry is going to have to pay repair costs, large repair costs, if you don't go in there and find the leak. Now, I think she said she was going on vacation, which means she doesn't know there's a leak. So, you, Toby, need to go up there with a master key and go in and repair the leak."

Toby sighed reluctantly.

"Because if you don't, I think Mrs. Doyle will be very unhappy. And, if Mrs. Doyle is unhappy, she'll move elsewhere. And you know Mrs. Doyle," Nelson told the younger man as he stood up and walked over to the large filing cabinet in the corner of the complex's rental office.

"Mrs. Doyle will see to it that she communicates with every tenant in here and you know what will happen next, don't you Toby?"

"No," he stammered.

Nelson opened up the top door and pulled something out. He walked the few steps to where Toby still stood, shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other. Then he thrust the master key towards the younger man.

"Here, now! Before Mrs. Doyle has half the tenants moving out right behind her."

"Yes, yes sir."

Toby took the master key and quickly made his exit out of the rental office.

There were days that he loved his job and then there were days that he very much disliked it. Today was one of those days. He didn't like to enter their tenant's units unless he was invited in. He didn't like making his way into their private homes, even though they were just tiny apartments. His Mama had taught him respect, if nothing else, and he respected the people that resided in the units of Sherwood Apartments.

Besides, he felt like he was breaking and entering and that was also something his Mama had taught him. You don't break the law.

He walked across the parking lot and made his way over to the quad unit that Miss Lowry lived in.

"She sure is a nice lady," he said as he walked up the stairs to her upper floor unit.

He knocked again, just to make sure that she really wasn't home.

"Boy, I do hope she's not in there. She might be taking a shower or something," he murmured as he placed the key into the lock and prayed that he wasn't invading into a delicate situation.

Toby swung open the door, his naïve innocence hoping that he didn't find Miss Lowry in a compromising situation of some sort.

A compromising situation was one thing. What he found was another.

Miss Lowry was sprawled out on the carpet near her living room couch, a broken glass and a cordless telephone not far from her outstretched hand.

Toby needn't have worried about embarrassing Miss Lowry.

A dead woman does not embarrass easily.


	37. Chapter 28

****

CHAPTER 28

Lee had almost reached the door that would lead him into Kelford's office when he heard a familiar voice. He looked through the faces, his hazel eyes finally settling on Jeannie Melrose. Registering her presence within the Agency did nothing to alleviate any of his fears.

"Lee," Jeannie breathed an audible sigh of relief upon seeing him.

"Jeannie, what the hell is going on?" Lee asked her.

Billy's wife shook her head and then frowned as she took in the sight of Amanda, who was now coughing horribly.

"Doctor Kelford's been expecting you. First things first, as they say," Jeannie told him. With that, she began moving towards the doctor's office, practically pushing people out of the way in her haste.

Lee didn't even hesitate in following her.

"Oh, and William needs to see you right way," Jeannie told Lee over her shoulder.

"Oh, no. I am not going anywhere," Lee grumbled as they passed through the doorway into Kelford's office.

Kelford was seated at his desk, holding the phone to his ear while chugging down, at an alarming rate, the contents of a bottled water.

Cradling the phone to his ear on his shoulder, he waved a hand towards Lee, indicating to Lee that he should settle Amanda down into the chair along the wall.

"I've got to go," he told the caller. "No, now. I will call back later."

"Ah, just the little lady I've been waiting to see," he said as he rose form his chair.

He came to stand before them and then turned to Lee. "Billy said you're to join him upstairs ASAP."

The furious scowl that appeared on Lee Stetson's face almost made the good physician take a step back, except that he had witnessed the wrath of the Scarecrow in the past and had already been anticipating such a reaction.

Fortunately, Jeannie Melrose interrupted quickly, leaving Kelford no time to comment and giving Lee no time to counter with a response.

"Lee, go on. I promised William I'd see to Amanda once you got here."

"But," Lee began to protest again.

"Go on son. He needs you right now," Jeannie told him in a soft voice that revealed the urgency of her husband's demand while telling Lee that she sympathized with him on the emotional level.

"I promise to take good care of her," Jeannie added as she visually witnessed the turmoil that Lee was so obviously feeling.

"We'll both take good care of her," Kelford promised. "Now go. I think Billy needs all of the capable bodies up there that he can get his hands on."

Lee turned towards Amanda and then knelt down in front of her so that he could look into her eyes. He took her hand in his and squeezed it gently.

"I'll be back soon, sweetheart."

Amanda looked at him with blurry eyes and gave him a weak smile.

"I'll be okay," she whispered. "Go on."

Suddenly, heedless to the consequences, Lee gave her a light kiss, his way of telling her that he loved her without vocalizing the words in front of an audience.

With that, he rose and quickly made his way out of the office, hating the fact that he was leaving Amanda while wondering what type of hell had they all just descended into.


	38. Chapter 29

****

CHAPTER 29

****

PART 1

Lee Stetson practically raced down the corridors of the Agency, intent on making his way to the bullpen as quickly as possible. By now, the earlier dilemmas of the week had faded away, replaced by the current situation that was not even remotely what he wanted to be seeing. He didn't like it and he wanted answers. But, most of all, he wanted a resolution. A resolution that he was determined to do whatever it took to obtain.

He pushed through the people milling about the bullpen, and, when he reached Billy's office door, he didn't even bother to knock. The Scarecrow simply plowed through it, a man on a mission, a mission that meant everything in the world to him.

What Lee saw was not encouraging.

****

PART 2

Joe King had taken a seat along the banks of the lake, a bottle of ice tea from the cooler in one hand and a legal journal in the other. The morning sun had already warmed up the air and a nice breeze blew off the peaceful water. It was, in his opinion, a picture perfect day.

The boys were splashing about in the water, apparently having a blast and he laughed at their antics, watching them dive and jump, splash and laugh as they each tried to outdo the other with their crazy stunts.

As he watched his sons play, for some odd reason his mind drifted back in time, to another summer evening here at the lake. He and Amanda had driven up from Virginia, originally to spend the week with an old friend of his. Mark's parents had had the cottage for many years here at the lake and Mark had invited them up to celebrate the end of another college semester.

Joe could easily recall Mark's suggestive comments, that the lake was the perfect place to bring his new fiancee to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and to just relax. Then, at the last moment, Mark's then fiancee had had a family emergency and Joe and Amanda had ended up having the cabin totally to themselves, alone with no interruptions.

Not something that Dotty West would have approved of, Joe chuckled. In fact, if his then somewhat shy Amanda had known how it was going to turn out, she probably wouldn't have come either.

They had been insanely and totally head-over-heels in love back then and yet, things had turned out so vastly different from what either of them would have ever expected. Back then, Joe wouldn't have ever been able to imagine not spending the rest of his life with Amanda.

While they'd had the illusion, the house with the white picket fence and two children, their marriage had slowly crumbled while he was a world away, on a different continent. While he had chased his dreams and goals, hers had slowly withered beneath the demands of raising two children and keeping things solid on the home front.

And, yet now, he was just weeks away from getting married a second time and Amanda, well Amanda had never seemed happier. She was already remarried, albeit secretly, except to a few select individuals and she was the one making a difference while he had finally chosen to remain stateside.

It had taken them both a long time to come to terms with their divorce and yet, now, Joe found that he couldn't be happier for her. And, watching their two sons frolic in the water, he acknowledged that both of them had finally moved on, that both had finally reached a point in their lives where they had nearly everything that they needed.

He sipped his tea as he watched the boys with a careful eye, even though both were very good swimmers. Then, he smiled as he wondered what their reactions would be if they knew even half of the things that their mother was involved in when it came to her very private and very secret double life.

Would they be as worried as he had been, initially? Would they be shocked?

On that beautiful summer night, way back then, if someone would have come up to him and told him that the woman he had held in his arms and made love to so sweetly, several years down the road, would not only be married to a Federal agent, she would be one as well, Joe King would have thought them thoroughly insane.

To be sure, once he'd gotten over the initial shock, Joe still had his worries. But, surprisingly, he had also come to be very proud of his ex-wife. She obviously loved what she was doing, she was very obviously in love with Lee, and she was making a difference.

And, in a funny roundabout way, Joe realized that they both were exactly where they needed to be at this time in their lives. No longer husband and wife, but friends, very good friends who just happened to share two of the most important things in their world, their sons.

Who, at the moment, seemed to be intent on dunking each other in the calm waters of the lake.

With a laugh, Joe placed his drink and journal down. Then he stood up.

Wearing a grin on his face, Joe figured that it was time to show the boys that their old man could still be a threat in the waters.


	39. Chapter 30

****

CHAPTER 30

Lee had pushed through the people milling about the bullpen, and, when he reached Billy's office door, he didn't even bother to knock. The Scarecrow simply plowed through it, a man on a mission, a mission that meant everything in the world to him.

What Lee saw was not encouraging.

The office was filled; the faces of those inside were clouded with tension, with worry, and perhaps even fear. Lee saw Dr. Claudia Joyce, his boss was on the phone and then Lee saw another man, one that he recognized immediately and had hoped that he would never encounter again, at least not in the line of duty.

Col. Thomas McJohn, the head of the Chemical Warfare unit from Fort Detrik, was seated in one of the chairs.

"Colonel McJohn," Lee addressed the man.

Billy hung up the phone call that he had been on and then sighed, a long and painful sigh from a man who looked like he had had nothing but bad news, repeatedly, all day. Lee's superior looked as if he had not slept in days, in fact, to Lee's trained eyes, Melrose bore little resemblance to the man that he had come to know and respect so well over the years.

His friend, dressed in a pair of khakis and a causal shirt, had apparently been caught during off hours and now looked like he'd had little sleep, too much stress and, if Lee was not mistaken, looked slightly ill.

"Lee, sit down," Billy instructed him.

Instead, Lee began pacing.

"Just tell me what the hell is going down."

Billy looked at McJohn and with a nod of his head, left it up to the Colonel.

"You're familiar with PD-2?"

Lee grunted.

"Yeah," he replied sarcastically.

"Apparently the Russians were experimenting, again, and it seems this time that the entire intelligence community have become the lab rats."

"What?"

McJohn nodded.

"It's not PD-2, something slightly different. They've named it PD-3-TSK."

"TSK?"

Suddenly what Rhonda had overheard was beginning to make sense to Lee's confused and angered mind.

"TSK for the silent killer," Dr. Joyce said.

Lee shook his head.

"How the hell did they get it here?"

"We're not sure, but it seems the first American victim was Greg Meyers."

"Meyers? From the NSC?"

McJohn nodded. "We believe he was somehow infected initially, and then, began passing it onto those in attendance at Monday morning's meeting."

"Damn!" Lee thundered. "Do you know how many different intelligence groups were at that meeting?"

"Yes, Lee, we know," Billy said tiredly.

"Wait a minute, PD-2 was some form of the pneumonic plague, right?"

McJohn nodded in response to Lee's question.

"And this PD-3?"

"A genetically altered pathogen of the same bacterium, _Yersinia pestis._ Nearly identical to what they injected you with six months ago," McJohn paused. "It's the plague."

"Damn," Lee whispered. "Amanda."

McJohn nodded soberly.

"Amanda and God knows how many members of the intelligence community," Billy added.

"And Lord only knows how many of the general populace," Dr. Joyce threw in. "We could be sitting on the brink of an epidemic, an epidemic being spread throughout Washington by the very people who've taken oaths to protect the nation and her people. An epidemic that I'm not sure we're ready to deal with."

"Fuck," Lee whispered barely loud enough for any of the others to hear.

"That's one way of calling it," Claudia replied.

Lee headed straight for the door, pausing for just a moment before he exited. When he turned around to look Billy, the look on his face clearly revealed his emotions.

"Meyers?" he asked.

Billy shook his head.

"His wife returned home from a business trip, found him on the floor of their bedroom. Dead. We don't know how yet how many others have been infected. I need your help on this Lee. We all need your help."

Lee closed his eyes for a minute, his lips pressed together firmly. He nodded.

"I've got something I need to do first. I'll be back."

That being said, Lee Stetson strode out of Billy's office and headed to where he felt he needed to be at the moment.

And for the time being, William Melrose let him go. He knew what the younger man was feeling and he knew that in order for Lee to be at his best, he needed to allow the agent a few precious moments.


	40. Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

Part 1

Jeannie Melrose sat down beside the bed that Amanda King was now lying in and watched with sorrow as the younger woman coughed and shivered.

"Drink some water child. It will help," she told the younger woman who had now become her charge.

Amanda sipped a little of the cooling beverage, then leaned back against the pillows, obviously spent from the effort.

"Where's Lee?" she asked.

"With William. He'll be here soon," Jeannie reassured her.

"What is going on, why won't anybody say anything?" Amanda asked.

"I think Lee will have the answers," Jeannie told her. "You just need to rest until he gets here."

Amanda frowned, then covered her mouth as another coughing spell overtook her.

Jeannie Melrose watched with heaviness in her heart. She did not want to be the one to tell Amanda what was going on and yet, if Lee did not return soon, she feared that she might have to. Amanda was far too inquisitive, even if she was deathly sick.

It was then that Jeannie noticed the rings on Amanda's left hand, a glittering diamond and a solid gold band.

While she had not been expecting to see that, Jeannie concluded that it would make for a change of conversation.

"They're beautiful rings Amanda," she pointed out.

Amanda glanced down to her left hand, where Jeannie's gaze was fixed. It was only then that she realized that she had not removed her wedding rings before leaving the house. The thought had never crossed her mind. If she had not thought of it and Lee obviously hadn't either, she silently wondered if his was still on his hand.

Amanda raised her eyes and found Jeannie still looking at her, obviously awaiting some sort of response or explanation. How did one explain something that was not supposed to be public knowledge and how did one explain it without the aid of her better half?

"Shoot," Amanda murmured.

Jeannie smiled. "I take it you didn't want that noticed."

Amanda shrugged as she looked back down at the rings. They were far more than beautiful pieces of jewelry that she regretted immensely not being able to wear more than she had during her and Lee's brief marriage. Amanda couldn't even put into words what they meant, what they symbolized.

She had never meant for them to be seen, not like this, not when Lee was absent from her side. And now, the wife of the boss who they had tried to keep this from was now privy to their little secret.

"Does it matter now," Amanda asked softly.

"When?"

"February," Amanda whispered. "February."

When Amanda raised her face back up and looked at Jeannie, the elder  
woman saw dark pools filled with tears.

Part 2

Lee Stetson wasted no time in returning to Kelford's office. The doctor was sitting at his desk, looking wearily at a pile of folders on his desk and ignoring his ringing phone.

"Doc?"

"Scarecrow."

"Where's Amanda?" Lee asked brusquely.

"Before you head anywhere, hold out your arm. For once, I don't think you're going to refuse my bedside manner."

Lee's response was to hold out his arm, impatient to get to Amanda and willing to do anything that returned him to her side.

Wisely, Kelford wasted no time in injecting Lee with the standard antibiotic.

"Come back and see me in twelve hours, and I mean that."

"I will. Now, where is she?"

"Next room on the left."

Lee turned quickly and headed right back out of the office, nearly running straight into Yusef El-Keri.

"Sorry," Lee apologized hastily.

"It is nothing," Yusef told him. "I know that you are going to see Amanda, but afterward, my friend, there is work to do and you are going to need my help."

Lee nodded grimly.

"Give me a few minutes, okay?"

Yusef nodded.

"I have nowhere to go, my friend," he replied even as Lee began walking away. "It would seem that they have detained me for the duration."


	41. Chapter 32

****

CHAPTER 32

Billy answered the ringing phone, yet again. It was Stanley Harper.

"Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you, yet again. There's been a new development Billy."

"What do you have?"

"I just received a call. Cassie Lowry, assistant to Greg Meyers, was found dead in her apartment earlier."

"Cause of death?" Billy asked, even though he was certain that he knew the answer.

"The plague. She's been dead, for several days. I think we might have discovered the initial point of infection."

"How sure are you of that?"

"She was scheduled for vacation all this week. She was in the office on Sunday afternoon, briefly. Greg was there as well. Trying to wrap a few loose ends before she left. You have to admit, it was perfect in theory."

"I don't want theories, I want the people responsible for this and I want them, now!"

"I know you do Billy, I know. I'll be in touch."

With that, the phone line went dead and Billy sat there in silence.

How many more deaths were going to happen until this thing was contained? How many innocent lives were going to be snuffed out for no reason other than a group of Russians who felt like having fun in tormenting them?

It didn't take Billy long to get the answer to the first question.

The ringing phone ensured that.

And with it, came the confirmation of yet another death.

Another life snuffed out by an invisible killer.

The Agency had just become another of the intelligence groups with a death toll.

Austin Smyth had just died.

"Sons of a bitches," Billy cursed, wishing right now that he had names, faces, someone to pin the blame on. But he didn't. He had nothing, no one to blame and nobody to take his anger out on.

He felt helpless and mad and there was little that he could do.

Sometimes, he thought, the big bucks weren't worth the paper they were printed on.


	42. Chapter 33

****

CHAPTER 33

Lee Stetson stepped into the door of the little office room that now contained two beds, two sick women and one healthy one who stood watch over them.

He noticed immediately that Amanda's eyes were closed and he looked at Jeannie. She gave him an encouraging smile and then ushered him out of the room and into the hallway.

"Whose brilliant idea was it to put the two of them in the same room," Lee asked Jeannie.

"Actually, Francine's been just as worried about Amanda as I was. I think she asked Kelford to," Jeannie answered Lee.

Lee nodded.

"Did anyone tell Amanda anything?"

Jeannie shook her head.

"No, I was waiting for you to. But the poor thing felt so miserable, she practically cried herself to sleep."

Lee frowned at that.

"I should have been there," he stated.

"She understands," Jeannie told him as she placed a consoling hand on his arm. "By the way, congratulations."

"Huh?" Lee asked.

Jeannie touched his left hand.

"I saw Amanda's, on her hand. I guess you had more important things on your mind than hiding this little secret."

"Oh," Lee said.

He thought about removing his, was actually starting to when Jeannie stopped him.

"Lee," she began. "I've know you a long time and I want you to know that I couldn't be happier for you, for both of you. Whatever reasons you had for keeping this secret, well, I've been there. I understand. But now, now is not the time for secrets, Scarecrow."

Lee sighed.

"I guess you're right. Do they pay you big bucks too?"

She smiled at his small attempt at humor.

"How's William holding up?"

"Better than I am," Lee replied. "He's focused on this, and frankly, honestly, the only place I want to be is here, with Amanda."

"I know, son."

"Look," he began. "I've got work to do. I've got to help in any way that I can."

"Why do you think that I'm here?" Jeannie asked him. "And yes, I will stay with her. It's the least that I can do. If I can help, in any small way, I want to. I need to."

Lee hugged her.

"Thank you," he told her as he looked back into the room where his wife and one of his best friends now lay, both fighting the same deadly illness.

"Take good care of her, of both of them," he pleaded with Jeannie.

"I will. Now go, they need you."

Lee nodded and then he did one of the hardest things that he had ever done. He walked away from his wife when she needed him the most.


	43. Chapter 34

**CHAPTER 34**

Lee grabbed a cup of coffee and made his way to the conference room. His arm hurt where Kelford had poked him earlier, not too mention the fact that he had a sore throat and a headache. That didn't even begin to cover the emotions running through him or the anger at the bastards who had unleashed this nightmare upon them.

He took a seat at the table and sipped his drink, allowing the warmth from the beverage to soothe his throat. It didn't take long for those that made up the functioning staff to fill the room.

Billy, of course, was there, despite the fact that Lee thought the man looked like he should be down in one of the beds near Kelford's office. McJohn, Yusef, Doctor Joyce and Cheryl Carrington, one of the night staff, completed the group.

Billy cleared his throat and then spoke, his voice clearly sounding irritated.

"I don't need to tell you what we're dealing with here," he said. "What we do need to cover is how we're going to deal with it."

"I've already spoken with the President and both he and his entire staff are going to receive treatments. We've initiated a Magna Alpha alert, double red, and that covers every branch of the intelligence community. Until we get this under control, the Agency is sealed and off-limits, nobody leaves and nobody comes in unless it's by my order."

"So, we've become an isolation facility." Lee observed, rather than asked.

"The other counter-intelligence agencies are operating under similar restrictions," Billy said.

"How do we know we'll get this under control?" Lee asked.

Billy looked at Cheryl, before speaking.

"Cheryl is handling the locator aspect. She's already got a group going through the list of all employees, both essential and non-essential. PWS forms are being required from everyone that's been within the Agency or in contact with any Agency employee. We initially thought that Greg Meyers might have been the initial point of suspect."

"He was at the meeting Monday morning," Lee said. "But?"

"His assistant was found dead in her apartment earlier today. The autopsy results aren't back in, but our money is on the plague."

Billy cleared his throat before continuing.

"From what we've gathered, Meyers was already beginning to feel the symptoms of this prior to Monday's meeting. Without obtaining a full brief though, we still can't pinpoint exactly where the starting point was."

"Never can get a full brief from a dead one," Claudia said.

Several eyes round the table looked at her briefly, but none commented. The woman was known for making bizarre comments but she knew her medicine, was highly regarded in the field, and for right now, she was up and functioning.

"It would seem to me that whoever orchestrated this wanted to begin infection via the meeting," Yusef inquired.

McJohn nodded. "And from there, it is only a matter of time until it spreads itself fully within the intelligence community and God only knows where else."

"The President has offered full use of military medical personnel to assist. You may have noticed our additional staff around here," Bill said. "We need to act and act fast before this spreads too quickly and gets out of our hands."

"Right," McJohn said.

"What exactly do we have on our hands?" Yusef asked. "I've heard talk of the plague, of pneumonia. What exactly is it?"

"In short, we've got an experimental field trial being conducted by the Russians on the intelligence community."

"And we're the lab mice," Joyce said.

McJohn paused to take a sip of his coffee.

"PD-3-TSK is a new, genetically altered form of the bacterium Yersinia pestis. They've somehow managed to slow down the reproduction rate, which means, you become infected with and become contagious with it but the symptoms are slower to develop than the earlier version of PD and PD-1."

"So, it's not the same as the PD-2 that I was infected with?" Lee asked.

"Oh, it's the same bacterium," McJohn replied. "Just genetically altered in a different manner. I gather that they didn't like the results from your field test, Scarecrow and decided to play the second half differently than the first half of the game."

"Okay, so they don't want out of the stadium. How do we kick them out?"

"PD-3 is recognized slower, thereby, theoretically allowing them more time to spread this within the intelligence community. By the time we realized what was on our doorstep, it was already in heavy circulation. Once a patient begins displaying the initial symptoms of sneezing and or headache and general malaise, they've become contagious. My guess is they want to knock as many of us out of the game as they can."

"Which we can't afford to let happen," Billy said.

"Okay, so they accomplish a major strikedown," Lee began. "What do they accomplish once they succeed? There's been nothing to suggest that they've got anything else up their sleeves. Intel has been pretty quiet."

"Maybe they do not want to accomplish anything else," Yusef said. "Other than to prove that they can do it."

"That's enough," Lee grunted.

Billy exhaled.

"The President's requested complete and rapid action on this. We can't afford to let this out into the mainstream and we certainly can't afford to lose any agents, within any of the agencies."

"A bioterrorist nightmare," Claudia said.

"Indeed," Yusef agreed.

"Okay, you said that it is slow developing," Lee said as he looked towards McJohn. "What about treatment? What about Amanda?"

"Once the disease begins to manifest the wide spectrum of pneumonic symptoms, treatment, if not already started, needs to begin immediately. PD-3 has in its favor, for the opposing team, the fact that most victims will erroneously believe they've contracted the flu and more than likely will crawl into bed to sleep it off. Give it another twenty-four hours and recovery chances are drastically reduced."

"Meyers, he thought he had the flu," Lee said.

"Exactly."

"That also works in our favor," Billy said. "Most of these people won't be out in the mainstream, they'll be at home, in bed. And," Billy added as he looked at Lee, "most agents will contact their agency physicians rather than a civilian health care facility."

"To be on the safe side we've already instigated a CDC Washington Blue alert," McJohn said.

"What is that?" Yusef asked.

"It's an alert put out, government authorized, indicating that the general populace might, and I stress might, come into contact with a possible bioterrorist disease brought in by foreigners. It's a rundown on what to look for, what treatment to initiate, what measures to follow, and who to contact in the event that it does surface."

"So that they will know what they will possibly be up against?" Yusef asked.

McJohn nodded. "We don't want to create a panic but these people need to be informed, just in case."

"You've covered a wide enough area?"

"The initial alert was issued in the states of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as DC. If we begin to see any cases, we'll consider spreading out from there. The President has already authorized activation of the National Guard and they're currently assisting in distributing the antibiotics needed to medical facilities within the local area. Units are also on standby, should any cases occur outside the alert area."

"And, once Cheryl and her group begin assembling the locator data, we can go from there," Billy said. "This is stoppable, if we act fast."

"Is it curable?" Lee asked.

McJohn looked at him, knowing Stetson would accept nothing less than the truth.

"Don't get me wrong, PD-3 is still a nasty variant, but if we can begin treatments early enough, there's a high chance of recovery."

"And if we don't?"

"Then it becomes what the Russians intended, the silent killer."


	44. Chapter 35

**CHAPTER 35 **

**Part 1**

The boys had worked up quite the appetite and finally, Joe had to give in to their demands, especially when Jamie started acting out that he was dying of starvation.

"Ham," Joe mumbled as he watched the two of them. They were a handful, they were comical, and yet, he loved them both, even if they were going into overkill here on the lunch thing.

That being said, they all agreed that hamburgers on the grill sounded perfect.

Soon, the aroma of the grilling food filled the air and even Joe had to admit that he was hungry as well. They'd had a great morning and this was only the first official day of their vacation.

Jamie and Phillip busied themselves getting their drinks and the potato chips together while Joe manned the grill. He listened to their teenage chatter, laughing at some of their comments. There were times that he found it hard to reconcile the fact that they were no longer little boys and he regretted not being there in the past.

But, as Amanda always reminded him, it didn't help to dwell on what they could not change. The past was what it was and, more than once, she'd gently reminded him that he was here now.

And the here and now was, at this moment, singing up a ruckus inside the cabin. Joe barely recognized the butchered Michael Jackson tune and had to fight from laughing aloud. Yes, they were his sons. They had inherited his total lack of vocal ability as far as singing was concerned.

"Don't forget the pickles," he called out to them, hoping that they would hear him over their garbled singing.

**Part 2**

William looked around the table, at the group of people sitting at the table.

"I know that McJohn has to get going and we've got work to do," he said.

"Remember, if you come up with something, need anything, I'm just a phone call away," McJohn said.

Billy nodded, then spoke to the rest of them.

"We've got a lot of ground to cover. Cheryl, I'd like for you to have your group finish assembling the PWS forms. I know you've been here all night, take a break as needed. I don't want anyone here falling sick if we can help it."

He turned to Joyce. "I need you to stay on top of making sure that everyone gets treatment. Kelford's got his hands full with those that are sick already."

"Yusef, I'd like for you and Lee to work any angles on tracking down the culprits. I want names and I'd like to have them yesterday."

Yusef nodded. "It would be my honor to hand them to you."

"Lee, I need for you to stay a moment, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sure," the younger agent replied.

The rest of the staff filed out, leaving Billy and Lee alone.

After the door had closed and a few seconds of silence had passed between them, Billy cleared his throat.

"We need to talk, Scarecrow."


	45. Chapter 36 through 41

Note: Between my brother being diagnosed with MS, my own stupidity of throwing my back out, and then aggravating it again this weekend, and then having my car break down, well, to say that my posting has been thrown off would be an understatement.

So, in order to catch Fanfic up with Wicky, I've not broken these following chapters apart into separate Word documents, yet.

Each chapter is broken apart with titling, so I think you can get by until I get them broken apart.

Much toda to Jan, who has been holding my hand and sharing seasonings from her writer's kitchen along the way. I think it gives it much better flavor.

And, of course, many, many thanks to all the GG ladies who have been nothing but the best along this journey.

And then, to Bear, who has silently sat and listened to me work the dialogue until I thought it might come close to the characters. He, as well as I, hope that you enjoy the next installment.

CHAPTER 36

Lee eyed his Section Chief carefully but Billy's expression was giving nothing away. Whatever it was, Lee was going to assume, at least according to his gut instinct, that it was nothing good.

Finally, after a lengthy silence, Billy spoke.

"I've been told that when you have something to say, you should just say it," Billy began. "So, I will. Before we came into the meeting, I received a phone call. Smyth didn't make it."

Now, Dr. Smyth had always been a thorn in Lee's side, sometimes a very painful one. The man had caused more than a few headaches for the Scarecrow and, presumably, many more for Melrose.

Lee had complained about him, silently cursed the man, and, at times, wished that he would just pack his bags for the Antarctic, but he had never wished the man this sort of ending.

In fact, Lee had just always assumed that Smyth would be around for an eternity, making everyone's lives miserable and chanting those annoying nursery rhymes until those around him were forced to pop several Tylenol.

"I," Lee began, then stopped realizing that he did not know what to say.

Billy smiled, faintly.

"I know, I'm thinking the same thing. He was annoying, a major pain, but he didn't deserve this. None of us deserve this."

"No," Lee replied in agreement.

"I haven't informed anyone else. Lord knows we don't need any more panic than we've already got. I trust you'll keep this to yourself."

"Billy," Lee said. "You know me better than that."

"Not a soul, not even Amanda."

Lee frowned.

"I don't think she's up to discussions at the moment."

"I'm sorry, son," Billy told him honestly. "I wish I could change it, but I can't."

Lee looked down at the conference table for a few moments, trying to wrap his mind around everything that was happening and still contain his growing anger.

"What can I do to help," Lee asked his boss, his friend.

"Help find out who unleashed this monster, that would be a start. Then, I need your help here. If you haven't already noticed, I'm tired. What I'd like is a few hours sleep, enough to keep me up and running. Francine's down and out of the game completely. I'm not sure that you're holding up much better, but I need you. Out of all of my agents, you're the one that can help the most."

"You know I'm there Billy, you know that."

Billy sighed with relief and then sniffled.

"I take it you've had your appointed visit with Kelford?"

"Yeah, he jabbed me," Lee grinned. "With strict orders to come back to him."

"Well, you follow those orders. I don't need lab work to guess that you've been exposed."

Lee merely nodded, not quite sure how to respond to that one.

"Oh, and by the way, you could tell me when," Billy said.

"When, what?"

Billy shook his head.

"When will you ever learn Scarecrow," Billy asked, wearing a grin as he looked at the younger man.

"I get paid to know things. You think I can't put two plus two together, that I haven't noticed where you've been spending most of your off time? You think I wouldn't notice that ring on your hand? So, I ask you, when?"

Lee glanced down at the ring on his hand. Then, in his mind, he could clearly see the image of Amanda. On their wedding day, the day that he'd pledged his heart and his life to her. The day that he had placed her ring on her hand and she had done the same. The day that she had willingly pledged her heart and her life to him.

A day that had been, until now, almost entirely been kept in secret.

She deserved better than that, Lee realized. Amanda deserved so much more. She didn't deserve to be another victim on what seemed to be an increasingly growing list of victims.

"Lee?"

Billy's voice, softer with concern, speaking as a friend and not his boss, broke through Lee's thoughts.

Lee looked up at him and when he spoke, he found that his own voice was shaking a little.

"In February, Billy. Amanda became my wife in February, right before we," Lee paused, to swallow and to clear his throat. "Right before we flew out to California."

Lee had almost lost her then. He'd prayed and prayed, more than he'd ever done in his entire life and his prayers had been answered. He had not lost Amanda.

But how many times can a man have prayers of that much importance answered?

How many times can one cheat death?

"I can't lose her, Billy," Lee said. "I can't."

"I know," Billy replied to him, his voice clearly showing that he understood. "I know."

****

CHAPTER 37

Part 1

The boys had enjoyed their lunch and were now sprawled out on a huge blanket near the edge of the lake. Jamie was sprawled out on his stomach, his focus totally on a photography magazine that he was reading.

Phillip was wearing headphones, probably listening to the Bon Jovi cassette that Carrie had bought for him for helping her wash and wax her car the other weekend. He was flipping through an auto magazine and tapping one foot along to the beat of the music.

Occasionally a wisp of a gentle breeze blew off the lake, cooling their heated skin and scenting the air with the floral fragrance of the flowers that grew along the water's edge. The chirping call of the birds flying overhead mixed with the soothing sounds of the lapping lake, creating an idyllic summer afternoon.

Or, at least it might have been idyllic if Joe wasn't suffering from a killer headache that had set in shortly after they had eaten lunch. And, to top it all off his throat was feeling rather scratchy.

And then there was Phillip, who was constantly sneezing and blowing his nose.

Only Jamie seemed unaffected by whatever allergens were in the air.

Joe got up from his chair and, after telling the boys he would be back in a minute, made his way towards the cabin where he knew that Amanda had most certainly packed some Tylenol.

****

Chapter 37

PART 2

For a brief moment, Lee and Billy just sat there, saying nothing in the silence of the conference room. It was Billy who finally broke that silence.

"Lee, I need PWS forms for both you and Amanda filled out. I figure if anyone can fill hers out with any sense of accuracy, it would be you."

"I can tell you what it should say," Lee spoke quietly. "Four words. Chained to a desk."

"Lee," Billy began but Stetson interrupted him.

"It's true," Lee said as he stood up. "Chained to a desk, that's where I wanted her. That's where I thought she'd be safest."

"You didn't know," Billy said as he watched Lee pace back and forth across the floor of the conference room.

"All I wanted, after California, was for her to be happy and healthy and safe. So I did what I thought was best. I tried to keep her tied down, behind these walls. And she listened to me Billy, just like she listened to me there. I told her to stay in the car; I  
forced her to stay inside. I can't be trusted to keep my partner safe, I can't be trusted to keep my wife safe!"

"Lee, calm down," Billy ordered him. "Look man, you had no way of knowing then, you had no way of knowing now. This game we play, this charade, it's dangerous. Life is risky too. You both knew the risks. Life isn't worth living if you don't take some chances. You obviously figured that one out or you would never have made it to the altar in the first place."

Lee ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah," he murmured.

"Look, go down and sit with her. Fill those forms out. Then, I need you to contact any members of your family that you might have had personal exposure to. We can't leave anything to chance, we've got to account for every move."

"I know," Lee said. "Look, I, uhm, I'll go up to the Q and get my directory. If you need me sooner, I'll be with Amanda."

Billy nodded.

"I understand. Oh, in my office, on my desk. There's a package that came in for you very early this morning. I think from TP."

"Thanks," Lee told him, then turned and headed out of the conference room.

William Melrose watched the younger man leave. It did not matter how many years that he had been in this business; it didn't matter how many times that he had preached the limited emotional connections speech to every freshman agent.

Over the past several years, Billy had formed a special bond with some of his best agents. Maybe it had something to do with him aging and mellowing, as his wife called it. Or, maybe it had to do with the fact that they were good, damned good and he'd been proud of the work that they had accomplished for the Agency.

And somewhere along the way, he had formed an emotional attachment that he couldn't deny it, he would never deny it.

First there had been Lee, followed by Francine, and now Amanda. One by one they had each taken a special place in his heart and he felt responsible for them. Even though the rulebook specifically quoted that he shouldn't, he felt accountable for it all. Accountable for their careers, for their joys and sorrows, and for their very lives.

While the spy handbook had never gone as far as guaranteeing any of it, for any of them, this time around Billy felt that they all deserved that much.

Lee and Amanda deserved to have a happy marriage. Amanda deserved to have her chance to fulfill whatever career dreams she might have. And Francine, well, she deserved the same opportunity as Lee to find that happiness in life that made life worth living.

And, this time around, Billy Melrose wanted whoever had dared to trifle with that guarantee. He wanted them held responsible. He did not take kindly to just snuffing out human life because someone discovered a new method of doing so and felt like playing to see how many soldiers went down.

Billy wanted retribution.

Hell, honestly, he wanted revenge because this time around, for him, it was personal.

****

CHAPTER 38

Part 1

**_NOTE:_**

I've tried really hard to keep this as factual as possible, considering the fact that the Russians altered Y.P. in the first place just so that I could have a plot. If anyone notices anything glaringly horrible, please let me know and I will make adjustments  
accordingly.

Thanks so much for your input and kind words. It really does help the writer when you've put together something this large and then take that leap of insanity to share it with others.

Once Lee Stetson had left the conference room, he headed straight for the Q-Bureau. His first order of business had to be business, no matter how much his heart longed to be close to Amanda. He paced nervously while awaiting the elevator, which seemed to have suddenly gained a horribly new record for slow.

Then, once off the elevator, he practically raced up the steps, ignoring the two masked guards who sat in the Georgetown foyer.

He unlocked the door to his office as quickly as possible and then went straight for the vault, where he kept a copy of his directory, a list of contacts and family members that he'd accumulated over the years.

It was only after closing the vault did he stop and take a breath, glancing around at the office that he and Amanda shared.

Their desks were in the same state that they had left them in yesterday, his, as always, a total mess and Amanda's much more organized. A few withering flowers were in the vase on her desk, a half-empty cup of coffee on his.

Lee actually smiled.

In so many ways, they were complete opposites and yet, somehow, they just clicked. His mind took him back to that morning at the train station, when he had just grabbed an unsuspecting Amanda on instinct and pleaded for her help.

From that moment on, neither of their lives had ever been the same. He could never have dreamed that the startled girl whose arm he had grabbed would eventually become the most important person in his life.

He laughed softly as he remembered her annoyance with him, her disapproving looks, and those sighs of exasperation when she was totally disgusted with him. He recalled how perturbed he would get when she went into that ramble mode of hers, his lack of patience with her, and how quickly she had irritated him over absolutely nothing.

Looking back, it seemed as if they had been two different people.

"I guess we were," Lee said to himself.

So much had changed since that morning; they had both changed so much. Lee would like to think for the better, for both of them. He knew his life was better and he thought hers was as well. And now, now they had each other, for better and for worse.

Well, they had certainly seen their fare share of both.

The part regarding for richer and poorer? Well, okay, so they weren't exactly rich but they weren't any worse off than most couples their age. Amanda's practicality balanced his once extravagant tastes, her sense of normality blended with his once exotic lifestyle.

These days Lee Stetson would rather be at home, doing hamburgers on the grill in the backyard and watching a movie with the boys.

And then there was the sickness and health issue. Lee had thought that they'd already cornered the market on that one but apparently he was wrong.

Well, he thought to himself as he closed and locked the office door, he was not about to let the sicker portion win. Oh no, he had waited a lifetime for Amanda, he was not about to let anything, anyone or any disease take that away from them.

It was that determination that carried him back down the flight of stairs and into the slow moving elevator. It was that hope that propelled him, once again, towards the bullpen and it was the gentle reminder of his wife's soft kisses that thrust him into agent mode, enabling him to carry onward with the tasks at hand.

****

CHAPTER 38

PART 2

Lee's first stop was to see Cheryl, the woman who was handling the PWS forms. He stood off to the side for a few moments, while she patiently gave instructions to several individuals that he recognized as members of the freshman candidate class that Amanda had been subbing for.

When she was finished, she looked up at him and gave him a pleasant, if not a little weary smile.

"Hello," she greeted him.

"Hi," he told her. "I was wondering if I could get some forms from you?"

She swiveled in her chair and picked up several forms to hand to him.

"I assume that you know how to fill these out," she queried in a gentle tone.

Lee nodded.

"I, ah, also have a favor to ask of you."

"Sure," she replied.

He handed her his directory.

"I've got a lot of people to contact but I've also got to fill these out for myself and for Amanda. Then I have to figure out where her sons are on vacation and get in contact with them."

Cheryl nodded, completely understanding.

"And you've also got a lot of other things on your agenda. I know how it is with you agents. And, not to worry, we will take care of it. I've enlisted the aid of many of the freshman candidates. Anything you need, we'll take care of."

"Thanks," Lee told her gratefully.

Cheryl nodded as she took the black notebook from him, then stopped, an odd expression forming on her face.

"I don't mean to pry, Scarecrow, but from the looks of things you've acquired something new and you had best tell me that the person wearing the other ring to match yours is a brunette or else I'm going to be really disappointed in you, young man."

"Oh," Lee said as he looked down at his hand. He'd thought about taking his wedding ring off earlier, after his conversation with Billy, but he seemed to have forgotten all about that plan.

He looked back at Cheryl and smiled.

"And just which little brunette are you referring to?" he asked her, not knowing where the sudden urge to play a bit conspiratorial had come from. "I know a few."

Cheryl made a mockingly disgusted sound at him.

"I don't know how Amanda puts up with you," she said as she placed his book down on the counter of her workstation.

Lee simply smiled.

"She loves me," he told her, surprised at the ease of which the words rolled off his tongue. It actually felt good to say it aloud.

"I've know that for a long time," Cheryl said as she grabbed a pen and a notepad.

"Do I need any recognition codes to contact your people?"

"Just tell them you're calling for Scarecrow and that the egg has broken. You can go from there. I'd, uhm, like for that list to be kept to as few eyes as possible."

"Discretion is my motto," Cheryl told him. "I've got just the team that can handle this for you. Between Jan, Ana, Amy, and myself we can take care of you."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it," Lee told her.

"No problemo, as they say. Now, I know you've got work to do and so do I, so scat. Oh, and young man?"

"Yeah?"

"Congratulations," she told him. "I know how wonderful it is to find someone special and I've been watching you two for quite some time. I'm glad you both came to your senses, finally."

"You never suspected a thing," Lee told her.

Cheryl just winked at him.

"Young man; you'd be surprised what we see around here. Now, get outta my hair, we've got work to do."

Dismissing him politely, she rose from her chair, Lee's black book in hand, and made her way to the group of people that she would entrust Scarecrow's family to.

Lee turned and made his way to Billy's office. He had a package to pick up and then he needed to be with the woman who had claimed his heart.

****

CHAPTER 39

PART 1

By the time Lee Stetson had made his way through the corridors of the Agency towards the medical section, he had gotten quite used to understanding the muffled voices behind the protective masks of those wearing them. He had not, however, gotten used to the actions of those who shied away from him.

He supposed it was common knowledge of anyone now actually in the building that Amanda was sick, and that, of course, through partnership, made him equally as dangerous to anyone currently healthy. Could he blame them, he thought.

Just by looking at him, they couldn't tell if he was infected. They had no way of knowing that his throat was sore and that he felt as though he had a mild case of the flu. They had no way of knowing that he was already tired, though he wasn't sure if it was because he had been exposed to this plague or if it was because of the lack of sleep from the night before.

Not that it mattered. McJohn had said the disease was curable, if caught early. And, for what it was worth, Lee was going to bet money that the man was right.

Because, if McJohn was wrong, Lee didn't even want to begin contemplating the after shocks that would rock through the intelligence community.

As he turned the corner, Lee heard a commotion. When he rounded the corner fully, he saw what the commotion was about.

One of the freshman candidates was backed up against a wall, her young face clearly full of fear.

"What do you mean I've been exposed to the plague?"

Her loud screeching voice filled the hallway.

"Miss Kerns, please calm down," Kelford was saying to her.

Clearly, the young woman was not having any of it.

"I didn't sign on to be exposed to deadly diseases," she yelled back at him. "To protect the citizens of the United States, yes," she paused to cough. "But not to die before I even have a chance to see what I can do."

"Nobody is going to die," Kelford tried reasoning with her. "Catching it early is vital and if you'll just let me start the antibiotic treatment, you'll be fine in no time."

Traci coughed again.

"We're all going to die," she answered him back. She looked at the crowd of people that had formed in the corridor. "We're all going to die and nobody's going to do a thing about it. The government will do a cover story, nobody will know why."

Kelford tried to approach her again and she backed away.

"Don't touch me," she yelled.

"You need to start the antibiotics, the sooner you do, the sooner you'll be well."

"No, no, no," she hissed. "How do I know what's in that? How do I know the government isn't using us as guinea pigs? Maybe we shouldn't even believe the Russians are capable of this."

Lee chose that moment to step forward a little, careful not to crowd her but close enough that she could hear him.

"Believe me, they're quite capable," he said. "And Kelford's right, you need to start treatment, now."

"You!"

Traci looked at him angrily, accusingly.

"She's the reason we're all getting sick. They told me! They said she's sick. Your partner infected us all, every single member of our class."

"No," Lee spoke up. "My partner was infected the same way you were. Unknowingly."

"Liar!"

"Why would Amanda risk infecting her own two sons," Lee asked her. "That wouldn't make any sense."

"I think you're all a bunch of liars and I am not staying in this building. I'm not going to stay here and just wait to die."

With that, Traci turned away from them and began running down the corridor as fast as she could. She didn't get very far.

Two masked guards approached her from the other direction, apparently called for by a bystander.

The panicked young woman whirled about, attempting to run back in the direction she had come from.

Instead of escape, she found herself barricaded in by Dr. Phaff and Yusef. Seeing that that route was not going to work, she whirled around again.

This time she found herself pinned up against the wall by Francine Desmond.

"Look," Francine instructed the younger woman in a very nasal and congested voice that clearly showed her irritation. "Get a grip, chick!"

"My God, she's got it too! We're all going to die, we're going to die!"

Francine rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Do I look like I'm dead to you? Now, shut up and go get your shots like a good little girl. You're giving me a headache."

With that, Francine took the trembling girl by the arm and shoved her towards Kelford.

"Good Lord," Francine mumbled, "you can't even get any peace when you're ill around here."

With that, Desmond turned around and walked back into the room that she'd been resting in and plopped down on the bed, coughing as she did so.

Lee followed her into the room, grinning at her.

"Tactful, very tactful," he told her.

Francine shrugged.

"Tact is not my strong point when I do not feel good," she replied.

"So I've noticed. Now, be a good girl and go back to sleep," Lee told her.

"Can it," Francine told him. "Billy probably needs my help, I should be up there, not here."

"You aren't in any condition to help anyone, yet," Lee told her. "Maybe later."

Francine stuck her tongue out at him, then watched as Lee looked at Amanda, who had slept through the entire disturbance.

"How bad is it?" Francine asked.

Lee turned to look at her, pausing for a moment as he contemplated his response.

"Depends on your definition of bad," Lee answered with a shrug.

****

Chapter 39

PART 2

Jeannie Melrose made her way through the Agency to Billy's office. She had felt the need to check on him; to just simply be with him for a few moments within all of the chaos that she knew would be wearing on her dear husband's nerves.

She found him, in his office. The blinds were pulled down and almost all of the lights were off, except for one little desk lamp. Her husband was sitting on the couch.

"Hello there," she told him as she closed the door behind her.

Billy rubbed his eyes and sat up straighter, trying to give her the impression that he was all right.

Jeannie knew better, even before she sat down and joined him on the couch.

"How are you doing?"

She reached over and took his hand, squeezing it lightly.

"Better, now that you're here," he replied.

"Silly old man," Jeannie told him. "Now, do I get an honest answer?"

"Oh, just your typical day at the office. I feel lousy, I've got a lot of men in black suits wanting answers, I don't have much to work with, and, by the way, have I told you that we've been all exposed to the plague?"

Jeannie slapped his arm lightly.

Billy looked at her and gave her an attempted smile.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. Reminds me of all the nights I sat up with our sick children."

Billy frowned.

"Probably more times alone than should have been."

"Hey, you've got an important job to do. I've always known that."

Billy turned to face his wife and then reached over and touched her cheek.

"Maybe, once this is all over, you and I should take a nice long vacation."

"I'd like that very much," Jeannie answered him. "You just tell me where and when."

"I'd like to know that myself. Jeannie?"

"Yes?"

"Dr. Smyth passed away earlier today. I've only passed that information on to Lee. I don't need to create any more panic around here than there already is."

"That puts our vacation on hold a while longer," she stated. "But we'll get through this William, we always do. I'm sorry."

"Funny, I just always assumed that he'd be around longer than the rest of us. Causing a major headache every chance he got. Do you know what the sad part is?"

"No."

"I've known Austin a long, long time. I know what he gave up in his own life, to focus on his career. He loved what he did. He took it to heart, married the job, he gave up a lot of things along the road. Sometimes I wonder, sometimes I think that maybe they're  
right."

"Who?"

"The ones who wrote the book. To do this job, for as long as he did and to do it right, maybe we should give up our personal lives completely."

"Billy Melrose, you listen to me," Jeannie looked at him directly. "Each and every one of you has to do what's right individually. Austin lived his life as he thought he needed to."

"Doesn't seem fair that a man who lived his life to serve his country should be victim of this. If he had known Jeannie, if he had known that he was carrying something deadly and endangering others."

"Stop," she insisted.

"I can't. I've got work to do."

Billy stood up, stretching his back and rolling his head to work out the kinks.

"I should go check on Amanda, I promised Lee that I would take very good care of her."

"How are she and Francine doing?"

"Francine seems to be bouncing back a little. Exhausted, but still too contrary to stay down for long."

"Amanda?"

"She's still running a very high fever. Kelford said that not everyone will respond as quickly to the antibiotics."

"I don't want any more deaths on our hands. As it is, Mrs. Marsten's nephew took her in to the ER this morning. The NSC has had two deaths, another agent who worked closely with Meyers is pretty bad, and I'm sure I have a status report waiting for my attention from the others."

"It could have been worse," Jeannie told him gently.

"It's still too early to tell," Billy reminded her.

****

CHAPTER 40

Part 1

When Lee Stetson had told her that it was bad, Francine thought that she'd been prepared for anything that he might say. When he told her, on a strict need-to-know basis that Dr. Smyth had passed away, she realized that she hadn't been prepared.

Sure, the man had always annoyed the hell out of just about everyone, and she, like everyone else, had secretly wished that he'd take a long vacation or two throughout the year. In fact, Francine had always wanted his vacations to last about six months each in duration.

But, the man's dying because of his exposure to a deadly disease had not been one of the plans to keep him out of her hair.

Inhaling deeply, she decided that the best course of action was not to think about it. There was an entire vault in the back of her mind where she stored such things, the things that agents witness or do in the field, for their jobs and for their country. For now, she was going to store this there as well.

After insisting to Lee that she couldn't just stay in bed and do absolutely nothing, he had handed her the package that he had received from TP. She might feel lousy and she might not really want to get out of that bed for very long, but she was still capable of  
reading and thinking.

Her wanting out of the room had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she wanted to give Lee a little privacy with Amanda. Not that the two of them were going to get themselves into the sort of trouble that she, Francine Desmond of the good timing department, had the uncanny ability to always be walking into.

But still, she had thought it would be polite if she vacated the room and left Lee to worry about his partner without having an audience. It was bad enough to have most of your life under scrutiny when it came to security checks in this business. And Lee and Amanda were actually crazy enough to attempt having a personal relationship in  
the middle of it all.

Francine supposed that love did, indeed, make one do really strange things.

She also had the Desmond persona to uphold. She might actually care about her friends, but she still wasn't willing to allow too many people a visual of that.

Francine Desmond still knew how to work a little whine and complain to get what she wanted and so Doctor Kelford had finally opened up the little patient consultation office across the hallway to keep her happy.

And so, she settled in at the chair and wrapped the blanket around her.

Then she picked up Lee's package, determined to do something useful today, no matter how insignificant it might be.

****

CHAPTER 40

Part 2

Lee had sat down in the chair next to Amanda's bed, content to just watch her sleep for the moment. The steady rise and fall of her chest beneath the blanket was reassuring to his worried mind. She still looked far too pale, in his opinion, and he could tell just from looking at her face that she was still running a temperature.

He hoped those antibiotics kicked in quickly. He needed his partner back, but, most importantly, he needed his wife by his side as well.

As quietly as he could, he began to fill out his PWS forms, wishing that Amanda were here to fill his in. Even he had to admit that his writing on a good day was something that needed a course or two in hieroglyphics to translate into meaningful English. Still, he tried his best to make it legible while running the course of the last week over in his mind. Lee knew how important it was not to miss anyone.

While reviewing one page to make sure that he had not missed anything, he cleared his throat. It was still sore and he still had a headache and felt a little congested but he didn't seem to be feeling much worse than he had earlier in the day. With any luck, a  
few hours of good sleep and the continuation of Kelford's magical drugs would kick this particular nasty before it got any worse.

If only they had been that lucky with Amanda. She'd had far too long a period of time with the virus in her system, and he didn't care what the doctors said or didn't say. It had only been five months since he'd nearly lost her to that gunshot wound. To him, that now seemed like far too close a span of time to be considered a non-factor in the equation.

Unable to resist, despite the fact that he had work to do, Lee placed his clipboard and paperwork down on the stand and moved to sit on the bed next to her.

His hand was caressing the warm skin of her cheek before he even realized it. Tenderly, his fingers slid across her flesh, wanting nothing more than to stroke away this misery, to banish it away without no memory, except that he could not, for he was nothing more than a mortal man with no glorious powers or magic.

She stirred slightly under his touch and he was rewarded with the sight of her beautiful dark eyes opening up. At the sight of him, she smiled and he felt somewhat better.

"Hey there," he told her.

"Hi," she managed to whisper.

"How are you feeling?"

Amanda took a moment, licking her parched lips with her tongue. Lee, of course, immediately moved to get her a glass of water, which she drank slowly but completely.

"Better," he asked her.

She nodded.

"It helps," she said.

Lee placed the now empty glass down on the stand beside the bed, then moved to pull Amanda into his arms. She snuggled against him, allowing him to hold her as tightly as he wanted.

For a few moment they stayed that way, she content to be next to the man that she loved, he content to hold her slender body next to his.

"Lee," she finally whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me what's going on."

"You're sick," he told her, hoping that it would be enough of an answer but knowing that it wouldn't satisfy her.

"Jeannie's here. Francine's sick. When we came in," she began.

"Hey, you don't need to concern yourself with all of that. You need to rest."

"Lee, I know what I saw," Amanda told him.

She looked up at him, her dark eyes clearly showing him that she had a need to know and that she wouldn't let up until she did know.

And Lee, who looked down at her sweet face and those beautiful dark eyes that had always been so full of trust and love for him, knew that he had no right to keep her in the dark.

She was his partner, his best friend, and his wife and even though he wanted nothing more than to protect her from all of the evils in the world, he knew that she had every right to be told what was going on. He couldn't protect her from this and it wasn't right to try and shelter her from it. Not when he knew how much was as stake, not when he knew that he now not only had her well being to be concerned about but that of her children as well.

And he was going to have to get their whereabouts from her, because, if he wanted to be the husband that she deserved, if he wanted to uphold every vow that they had pledged, then he was going to have to find her children.

The only way to do that was to tell his very beautiful and very sick wife exactly what was going on. He would have to tell her why she was sick, how she had gotten sick, and then, the man that loved her more than anything was going to have to shatter her heart when he told her that she may have exposed her children to this.

****

CHAPTER 41

Warning: The following chapter may not suitable for those with weak stomachs.

I really tried hard to convey a lot of things in this chapter, so please let me know your opinion. This is probably one of the hardest ones in the entire story. There's a couple more, similar to this, coming later, and your comments on this one might help improve those.

Thanks so much ladies!

**CHAPTER 41**

Lee pressed a gentle kiss against his wife's forehead.

"Lee?"

He knew he had to tell her, he only hoped that he had enough strength to hold her up when everything came crashing down around her. Lee wasn't sure how to tell her, he didn't know if he had the words. Expressing things had never been his strong point, actions rather than words seemed to suit him far more appropriately.

"Amanda, do you remember when Doneck injected me with the PD-2 virus?"

She nodded.

"Well, it seems that someone decided to go back to the lab."

"This is PD-2?"

"Yes and no," Lee responded. "It's the same germ or whatever they call it. But it's been altered, differently than what PD-2 was."

Amanda's mouth dropped open a little and her eyes widened. But, not a word came out.

"They think that the Russians somehow managed to infect someone in attendance of the initial ATAC meeting. Greg Meyers."

"He's the one that didn't show for the meetings, right?"

Lee nodded.

"There were representatives from every intel group at that meeting. That's how it started."

"And that's what I have," her voice wavered slightly.

"Yes," Lee sighed and then hugged her a little closer to him. "You, Francine, and I don't know for sure how many others."

"But how? I wasn't at that meeting," Amanda reminded him. "I hardly helped you, I was here the whole time. Lee, how?"

"Smyth was exposed to it. You and Francine encountered him the other evening, when you were leaving work."

Amanda coughed against his chest, shaking her head.

"I don't understand," she told him.

"Manda, Smyth was contagious at that point."

She raised her face to look at him, her eyes resembling dark liquid pools.

"They barely got an antidote in time," she whispered. "Lee?"

He felt her tremble against him; he registered the unasked question in her voice.

"According to McJohn, early treatment of pneumonic plague with antibiotics can reduce the chance of death. McJohn knows his stuff; you and I both know that. You'll be fine in no time."

"And if he's wrong," she managed to ask, her words sounding hesitant, her voice sounding frightened.

"Hey," Lee told her as he placed a hand under her chin to tip her face up.

"He wasn't wrong then. I'm still here baby, I'm still here."

He watched Amanda carefully, he saw the way she tried so hard to blink back the tears that were threatening to spill. At one time, Lee had thought that the slender young woman he'd chosen from among all those people walking about at the train station couldn't have possessed half the amount of courage he had long ago discovered to  
exist. She was, in her own words, a lot stronger than she looked.

But, right now, she was sick, she was running a fever, and she was scared. And, despite her best attempts, the tears were slowly running down her cheeks, leaving a wet path as they dropped downward.

"Hush, baby," he whispered soothingly as he cradled her against him. "Please don't cry. Manda, please don't cry."

"I'm scared," she sniffled.

"I know," Lee told her.

"Can they stop this?"

"An entire Magna Alpha, double red has been issued. Every intel group has instigated an isolation procedure. Colonel McJohn has teams on it. The President has been advised and authorized any needed manpower."

"But this, this is one of those bio," Amanda coughed, "terrorists attacks."

"Unofficially, yes."

"Unofficially? From what you're saying they've released this, Lee," Amanda paused to cough again. "Just how far has this spread?"

"We're not sure. I'm not sure. I've been down here for awhile, with you. When I go back up to Billy's office, I may know more."

"Jeannie's here."

Lee nodded. "She was already potentially exposed, through Billy. She wasn't willing to just sit at home and do nothing. She offered to help. She promised me that she'd keep an eye on you."

"If Jeannie was exposed," Amanda began. "Lee, the boys?"

"Have also been potentially exposed."

Amanda sat up straighter in the bed, her hands clenching on his shoulders.

"My babies? They've been exposed to this?"

"Hey, hey," he tried to calm her. "Potentially. We don't know for sure."

"My babies, oh my God, Lee," Amanda sobbed. "My babies."

Amanda dropped her head onto his shoulder, alternating between coughing and sobbing.

"Oh my God," she cried softly. "I gave this to them."

Lee pulled away from her and then gently cupped her face in his hands.

"We don't know that for sure, sweetheart."

"Please," she sobbed. "Please Lee, not my babies, please."

"Manda, I will make sure that they're brought in. But to do that, you need to tell me exactly where they are. I need to know exactly where they went on vacation."

"The lake, they went to the lake. They're in the middle of nowhere," she whispered.

"Okay, okay. Tell me where Amanda, where?"

Instead of being able to answer him, she was overtaken by a coughing fit. A horrible coughing fit that had her dropping back down against his chest and allowed Lee to feel the rattling in her chest that accompanied it.

She couldn't seem to stop, no matter how much he told her to calm down.

"Manda," he told her as he rubbed her back gently.

"Ssh, sweetheart, come on baby, calm down."

Jeannie Melrose had chosen that moment to walk into the door of the room and was horrified to see that Lee was holding Amanda against him as the younger woman all but seemed to be coughing her lungs up. She quickly turned and raced into Kelford's office, summoning his assistance.

By the time she returned to the room, only a few steps ahead of Kelford, who had paused to grab a bag of supplies, Amanda was alternating between hysterical sobs and fighting to catch her breath. Lee looked horrified, as he held her, apparently making no  
headway in his efforts to pacify her.

Kelford entered the room just in time to see Jeannie's quick thinking place a plastic basin in front of Amanda just before she began throwing up.

None of them noticed Francine Desmond come to stand in the doorway, holding the information that had been in the packet for Lee.

She watched in horror as her coworker and friend seemed to be taking a turn for the worse. She noted the panicked expression on Lee's face as well as Jeannie's.

And then Francine Desmond turned and ran back into the little office that she had been sitting in and closed the door behind her. She stood there for a few seconds, her back against the door. As frightened tears began to work down her cheeks she slowly slid down until she was on the floor. She brought her knees up to her chest and allowed herself to cry.

It was something that Francine hardly ever allowed herself to do. It was also something that she couldn't have stopped, even if she had wanted to.

People were sick and people were dying and she was helpless to stop it. And she was going to admit, just this once, that she was good and scared.

Scared to death.


	46. Chapter 42

_Ermintrude, I just want to say thank you._

_Really, thank you to a lot of my fellow SMK friends, who know more about what's been going on in my personal life than most and still hang in there with me. It has thrilled me to no end to hear such kind words from someone so much more knowledgeable in these medical issues than I, especially when they let me know that my efforts aren't too far off base from reality._

_I didn't want to get too technical and graphic for two reasons: 1 – I didn't want to screw up the medical facts and 2 – because I thought it would bog down the story, which is more complicated than anything I've ever attempted._

_So, I thank you all for reading and for encouraging._

_And, yes, I am glad that you are glad that Smyth has departed for the old nursery rhyme shoe in the great beyond._

_Happy Reading, my fellow SMKy friends._

_Twisted Sister – the demented, unconventional and hopefully, never boring nun (insider joke – insert big smiley face here._

CHAPTER 42

Part 1

Francine wasn't sure how long she had sat there, on the floor against that door. She didn't know how many tears she had cried.

She only knew that she felt helpless and tired and miserable.

Then, the idea came to her mind and she slowly pulled herself up and went to the desk. Still sniffling, she picked up the telephone and dialed a number that she rarely dialed.

On the third ring, a female voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Francine?"

"Yeah," she said, hating the fact that she was still sniffling.

"Honey, what's the matter? Is something wrong?"

"No, no everything's good," Francine tried to lie.

"Francine Elizabeth Desmond, since when do you call me when you're at work, at least I think you're at work, and when do you call me crying?"

"I wasn't crying, I've got a cold. A really bad cold."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, honest."

Okay, so it wasn't exactly the truth but it wasn't exactly a lie either.

"Are you okay honey?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to call real quick."

"Nothing's the matter? Everything's okay? You're not being sent overseas again or something?"

"No, nothing like that. I just wanted to call. Is Daddy there?"

"No, he's at the golf club."

"Oh," Francine said.

"Honey, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, look I gotta run. I love you. Tell Daddy I love him too."

"Francine?"

Knowing that her mother wasn't buying a word of it, she quickly hung up.

She wasn't sure what had made her do such a stupid thing, but for some reason she had needed to hear her mother's voice.

She took a few minutes to compose herself and then, picking up Lee's information, she steeled herself to go find him. This was information that Lee would want to know about.

CHAPTER 42

Part 2

"How is she?"

Lee looked up to see Francine standing in the doorway, looking very pale.

"Have you been crying," Lee asked her.

She shook her head.

"Sneezing," she lied to him. "So, how is she?"

"Doc gave her a light sedative, good for her but bad for me."

"How so?"

Lee rose from the chair and walked over to the doorway.

"I need to find out exactly where the boys are."

"They're with Joe, right?"

Lee nodded.

"Except I don't know exactly where and I need to have them found, ASAP."

"Well, let me help you."

"You look like you're ready to drop," Lee told her honestly.

"Yeah? Well you don't look so good either," she retorted back to him.

"Love ya too," he teased.

"Please," she groaned. "Look, do you want my help or not?"

"Yes, I do," Lee told her. "You feel up to going to Billy's office?"

"I'll make it there, one way or another," she insisted.

"Good. Let's get going. I think every minute here is going to count. Oh," he said before he left the room.

Francine watched him as he went round the opposite side of Amanda's bed and picked up her purse. He fumbled through some things until he found what he was looking for. Then, holding Amanda's black daytimer in his hand, he nodded to the door.

"Shall we?"

"Oh yeah," Francine responded.


	47. Chapter 43

****

CHAPTER 43

PART 1

They had taken over the conference room, seeing that nobody was using it at the moment. Francine had spread out the pages from Lee's envelope in front of them and they were now scanning them.

It would appear that TP's sources, Bentley, Garth, and Muffin, had stumbled upon some rather interesting tidbits of information. Lee didn't want to know how they had accomplished it, but it gave them something to work with and that was considerably more than they had had before.

"Doneck! Why am I not surprised," Francine mumbled.

"Yeah, but here's an interesting twist," Lee said. "Miasnikov is in on this."

Francine tilted her head as she thought that one through.

"Miasnikov? Wasn't he buried back in 1982?"

"Yeah," Lee nodded. "I think so. If memory serves me right, there were unconfirmed reports of Russian scientists experimenting with a type of viral fever and they all ended up dying in some private laboratory. I think Miasnikov was one of the initiators and, after that fiasco, the Russians reassigned him."

"Well, it looks like he just reversed that decision."

Lee thought about it for a moment.

"Somehow he got in touch with Doneck and from there, they orchestrated this whole thing."

"Maybe PD-2 was only one part of their field test," Francine speculated.

"Could be," Lee agreed. "According to this, they finalized their experiments in early July. From there, someone came over from Moscow."

"Yeah, and brought this with it," Francine said, her expression clearly revealing her distaste for the whole thing.

Lee got up from his chair and began pacing around the room.

"Look, there's probably no way that we can get Miasnikov, he's probably not even in the US. But, Doneck's locked away in a nice cell and if we send someone over to have a pleasant chat with him, that might give us some names."

"I'd love to go," Francine said. "A few coughs and sneezes, along with the hint of an antidote might get him to spew his guts."

Lee shook his head.

"It's a good plan, but not yet."

"Why not?"

"You need to be resting. Just because you're conscious doesn't mean you have this thing licked. It could be days before you feel up to that sort of torment."

Francine scowled at him, but she couldn't argue.

"Agreed," she relented. "But I really want to be the one to dish the torment out."

"Fine by me," Lee told her with a grin.

"In the meantime," Francine told him, "I can get someone who is a little healthier than me to work this data. Maybe they can run some traces, see who came through the doors and when. Could help narrow down some names."

Lee nodded.

"And I've got to find out exactly where Phillip and Jamie are."

"Didn't get much from Amanda?"

Lee shook his head, then coughed a little.

"No, I only succeeded in scaring her," he lamented as he rubbed his bleary eyes with his hands.

"Well, let's stick to what we know," she suggested.

"They're on vacation with Joe, at some lake. That's all I know."

"It's a start," she told him gently.

"Does Amanda's mother know where they were going?"

"She might. Only problem is; she's been away almost the entire summer. One trip after another."

Francine chuckled.

"She's not your average grandmother, is she?"

Lee laughed.

"Dotty? Average?"

"Forget I asked," Francine said. "Sometimes I think that I'm more normal than Amanda's family."

Lee grimaced.

"Really?'

Francine just smiled at him.

"I don't pick up strange men at the train station, hide his existence from my mother for what, nearly four years, and go around covering up what I really do with my life from almost every person that I know."

"You just don't tell your family what you do," Lee reminded her.

"Okay, so I don't talk to them, much. It works out better that way," Francine said with a shrug. "Oh, and I almost forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"I don't go around hiding my marriage from my coworkers either."

****

CHAPTER 43

PART 2

Evening would soon be settling down upon the secluded cabin by the lake. The glowing orange ball had already begun dipping down behind the high green tops of the mountains that surrounded them.

A cooling breeze blew off the waters but for Joe King it was providing little relief. He was now positive that both he and Phillip were coming down with summer colds that had not been on their vacation agenda.

While Phillip had finally gone inside to nap in the coolness of the cabin, Jamie had stayed outside, alternating between refreshing moments in the clear water or sitting on the blanket and quietly reading.

Joe had gone beneath the small porch and sat on the glider, trying to enjoy the late afternoon peace and quiet.

He had already taken some cold medicine and was hoping that he would feel well enough by the morning to spend a wonderful day with his sons. Ever since he had returned to the States, he had tried to spend as much time with them as possible. It was hard to imagine that they were fast on their way to becoming young men and that, one day soon, they wouldn't want to spend so much time with their parents.

Amanda had told him a few weeks ago that she was already noticing the difference. While she had been the dominant presence in their lives for so long, now they seemed to prefer spending their time with their father or with Lee or even Dotty's flight boy.

Phillip had an increasing interest in all things with mechanical and Lee had, more than once, warned Joe not to let the youngster under the hood of his car. Apparently, Phillip had gotten too close to Lee's Vette one too many times.

Joe smiled at the thought that it wouldn't be long before their eldest son would be driving and his dependence on the adults who had raised him would lessen even more. And then, he'd be off to college or maybe the military, an idea that he'd lately spoken about a few times.

Jamie wouldn't be far behind him and Joe frowned with that thought. It really did just seem like yesterday that he and Amanda had brought them home from the hospital, little crying infants who were so helpless and needy.

Oh and boy, oh boy, did he ever remember bringing Phillip home. Amanda had been thrilled and yet petrified. They both had been. Their cozy little world of just the two of them had suddenly changed, bringing with it all sorts of new challenges and demands.

Looking back on it, Joe supposed they really had been too young and not sure enough of what they wanted out of their own futures to suddenly be bringing babies into the world. But, somehow, despite all the trials and tribulations they had gone through, things seemed to have turned out just fine.

Now, if he could just get rid of this cold quickly and enjoy the rest of their vacation, he would be a happy man. In the meantime though, with a glance at his watch, he knew it would be time to feed the two growing boys that meant so much to him.


	48. Chapter 44

****

CHAPTER 44

The waiting had stretched out for what seemed an eternity. And then, finally, Lee and Francine made some headway. His telephone conversation with Carrie had gone much better than Lee had anticipated, considering the fact that he'd omitted an awful lot of details as to the reason why he so urgently needed to contact the boys.

To quote the rulebook, the less the public knows the better for the spies who must work around the dilemma.

At any rate, they had finally obtained a name for the owner of the cabin from Carrie. Now, they needed a telephone number and an address for the cabin.

But, Lee realized that he was going to have to make the next step of the quest without Francine. She was looking more than a little battle fatigued and he was beginning to worry about her. It took some insistence on his part, but he eventually managed to get her to see it his way.

So, after shooing her away to go get some rest and with name in hand, Lee made his way out into the bullpen and began scanning the sea of faces to see who might be able to lend a hand.

His eyes settled on Cheryl, who, at the moment, was also looking more than a little weary.

He approached her desk and pulled up the neighboring seat.

"Hi," he told her.

"Hello yourself," she told him. "How are you feeling?"

Lee shrugged.

"About as exhausted as I think you are," Lee told her. "And, I really hate to bother you, but I need a favor."

"Ask away," Cheryl told him.

"I need to run a trace on this name. It's the owner of the cabin where Amanda's sons are vacationing. I need to find out exactly where it is so that we can find the boys."

Cheryl took the slip of paper from him.

"Consider it done. Oh, you might want to check on Mr. Melrose. I don't think he's feeling very well and we girls really think he needs to get some rest as well."

Lee could tell by her expression and by the tone of her voice that she was worried. Well, she had company in that one. Worry, it had seemed, had settled in amongst the masses in high quantities.

"I'll go have a talk with him," Lee said as he rose out of the chair, a little more slowly than he would have liked. He had to admit that he wasn't feeling all that well either, something more that many of the Agency employees had in common.

Cheryl frowned as she watched that tall agent walk away. She could hear him sniffling a little and he looked as though he hadn't slept in days. And, even though he hadn't said it, she knew he was filled with concern for his wife. She recognized that look, knew the helplessness that filled one when your loved one was in danger and there was nothing that you could.

She only hoped that Lee's situation did not end with the same tragic results that had ended her marriage far too early for her liking.

With a heavy sigh, she resigned herself to pushing those emotions away and concentrating on the job at hand. If Lee Stetson needed Amanda's children found then she was going to use whatever resources the Agency had at hand to help make that happen.

An agent might get all the glory when a case was officially closed but she knew that there were always the people in the background who went sometimes silently unrecognized. But, in the end, they were still a part of the process and that was what counted.

She was determined to help make a difference and she knew just the group of ladies who could help.


	49. Chapter 45

****

Chapter 45

William Melrose sat at his desk, staring down at a pile of paperwork in front of him. He barely registered the opening and then closing of his office door. When he glanced up, his eyes came into direct contact with those of Lee Stetson.

Usually, the Section Chief was the one who did the scrutinizing, always on the lookout for telltale clues as to what was going on behind the sometimes very private walls that agents built around them.

This time, Billy felt as though he were the one under the microscope.

"Something I can do for you, Scarecrow?"

"No," Lee replied. "But there is something that you can do for me."

"And that would be?"

"That would be get off of your feet and get some rest. No offense Billy, but you look like hell."

"I'll note that in the file," Billy grumbled.

"Come on Billy," Lee insisted.

"Lee, in case you haven't noticed, we've got a plague to contend with. I've got sick employees, I've got panicked employees, I've got missing ones and I've got ones that I'm trying to keep out of harm's way. I've got a pile of messages higher than the Washington Monument and I've got a lot of answers that people are demanding. I don't have time to rest."

Lee walked right up to the edge of Billy's desk and leaned over it, bracing himself on the palms of his hands as he looked straight at his supervisor.

"And you're going to join the really sick employees if you don't take some downtime."

"I don't have time for downtime," Billy retorted loudly. Then, lowering his voice, he returned Lee's stare. "We're down a director, in case you hadn't heard."

"I heard, loud and clear," Lee replied. "We don't need to be down a Section Chief as well. That would mean they'd bring Dirk out of retirement and I'm really not so sure that I could handle him."

Billy snorted.

"The day they bring him back, I'm packed and off to Hawaii, permanently."

"Well, well, well. Finally, something we agree on."

"Look Lee, I know you mean well. But I've got to make replies back to people, very important people. You might know a few of them, like the President."

"Okay, so I'm sure they want to know that everything is being taken care of as efficiently as possible. It is, what more do they need to know?"

Billy leaned back in his chair.

"For starters, they want to know how this got by the radar."

Lee turned around and walked over to the window, glad that Billy's blinds were still pulled down.

"Yeah, I was asking the same question when PD-2 came to town," Lee told him.

Then he turned around, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looking down at the floor.

"Believe me Billy, if I could have prevented this, don't you think I would have? The first inkling of anything was from Rhonda. And she didn't have much. It took TP until the wee hours of the morning to find anything printable, up until then it was just a few overheard conversations that didn't translate into anything. It was already too late."

"I know," Billy answered him. "The President has a legitimate reason to be concerned. I would be too, especially since almost the entire intelligence community was targeted."

"Scary, I know."

"Damn scary," Billy leaned forward.

"Do you know what we've got on our hands? This is a precursor to a bioterrorism attack. A deliberate release of a disease causing agent into the general public. Extremely hard to detect, delayed symptoms, and easily passed from one person to another. The CDC would classify it as a Category A agent. You want to know what I've learned about that?"

Lee didn't answer the older man, as he knew Billy was going to tell him anyhow.

"A Category A agent has both a high potential for maximum impact and an extremely high potential for large-scale dissemination. According to McJohn, this Yersinia pestis bacterium or the pneumonic plague has a history of biological warfare use. It dates back for centuries. This little bug has everything in its favor, including the fact that it can slip right through security checks the world over. Any crackpot out there, given the right capability, can infect anyone else."

"I know that."

"Infect one person Lee, just one. Put that individual on a plane, a train, a ship or back at their home office. By the time they get sick enough for anyone to figure out what the hell is going on, do you know how much damage can be done?"

Yeah Billy, as a matter of fact I do," Lee retorted back.

Tired and frustrated and worried, Lee launched into a full-scale tirade, his voice rising with each word.

"I've got a wife who has it and she's petrified that she may have infected her two sons with it and, right now I don't know exactly where the hell they are because she's too sick to be able to give me the information. So, yeah, I think I understand exactly what is going on here."

Lee strode right up to Billy's desk and slammed his hands down on the edge, hard enough that Billy actually felt it shake beneath the Scarecrow's rage.

"Maybe the President would like to tell me what the hell I tell her if I don't find Phillip and Jamie before it's too late. Maybe he'd like to tell me how to explain to her that her sons died because she works for a government intelligence agency that's supposed to serve as a peace keeping unit, protecting individuals and maintaining law and order among the masses. Maybe he'd like to tell her that her husband couldn't find her sons in time because he was being held in lock down in an isolation unit."

Lee inhaled briefly.

"How do I explain that one to her, huh? You said it yourself from day one, she's got great instincts, she's a natural and she loves her job. How do you tell your wife that it was because of her job, the one where she thought she was making a difference?"

Lee moved to Billy's couch, his voice lowering a little as he sat down.

"How do you explain to her that this was the type of difference she made, huh? How Billy? How?"


	50. Chapter 46

****

CHAPTER 46

Billy took a moment to reflect on how to reply to Lee, to try and answer his friend's very legitimate and yet still unanswerable question. Before he could find the right words, a knocking at the door interrupted him.

"Come!" he bellowed to the would-be visitor.

He recognized Jan, one of the night administrative staff.

"I'm sorry sir, but you had asked for these updates as soon as we had anything."

"Yes, yes. Go ahead," he told her.

She handed several folders to Billy.

"The purple folder is the list Ana compiled of all agents still out, and currently believed to be unaffected," she indicated.

"What about unaccountable agents?"

"Kris has the current list in the red folder. If there are any changes, her team has been posted to update you."

"Good," Billy nodded his head. "Good. That same list has been forwarded to Colonel McJohn?"

Jan nodded her head.

"And there's a team working on the trackdowns?"

"TJ has staff already on it, including some of the trainee agents. Stephy took another group of the trainees to assist in sifting through the information provided to Mr. Stetson. If there's a way to track this stuff and how it came in to the country, they'll find it."

"Excellent," Billy said, smiling a little for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

Billy picked up the one folder and began to skim through it, while asking his next question. "Whose working the agent contact lists?"

"I believe Lynda and Rita are on those still," Jan replied before turning and looking over at Lee. "I believe they're about half-way through yours."

"Thanks," he told her, his voice sounding oddly detached and leaving Jan to wonder just exactly what she had walked into.

She didn't get the chance to dwell upon it though.

An excited voice on the other side of the door called out to them.

"Excuse me, I hate to interrupt, but I think we have some good news," an excited Patti said as she waved a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Well, share with us," Billy told her with a bemused chuckle as he watched the young woman's genuine excitement seemingly light up the entire gloomy room.

"I've got information," she said with a wide smile. "Helpful information."


	51. Chapter 47

****

CHAPTER 47

"I've got information," she said with a wide smile. "Helpful information."

Patti smiled.

"Lee wanted us to track down the owner of the cabin that Amanda's family is vacationing at. I've tracked him down," she turned and smiled at the fatigued looking agent sitting on the couch. "Now, he's on business in Florida, but I've managed to get his itinerary from his office. I believe he's at a business dinner at the moment, but there's a message waiting for him at his hotel. We don't know where they went to dinner or we'd track him down there."

Lee jumped up from the couch, suddenly looking ten years younger and considerably more hopeful than he had previously appeared.

"That's great!"

"Very good Patti, very good," Billy told her.

Lee actually hugged the young woman in his excitement.

Patti gave him a look.

"You best behave," she mockingly scolded him. "Rumor has it that your wife might get jealous."

"My wife is going to be thrilled," Lee pointed out to Patti. "Page me when we get him on the line, will ya?"

"Already been thought of," she reassured him.

Lee grinned.

"I'm going to go down and check on Amanda. If she's awake, this might just make her feel a little better."

"Go, go," Billy told him.

All three of them smiled as they watched Lee Stetson practically race out of the office.

"Well, things might just be looking up a little," Billy said.

"They just might be," Jan agreed. "They might just be."


	52. Chapter 48

CHAPTER 48

Author's Note:

Lake Raystown really does exist. They always had the best vanilla chocolate swirl ice cream cones at the snack shop when we were kids. Anyhow, if you're a little curious to get a view of the lake, here's a link that might help (7pointsmarina)

Evening had finally settled upon Huntingdon County. The moon had begun rising in the sky, her white light reflecting of the gently rippling waters of the lake. Night sounds filled the air as Joe King sat on the glider out on the porch, enjoying the cooling breeze.

Phillip had taken some cold medicine and gone straight to bed; an almost unheard of happening for his eldest son during the summer months when school was not on his primary agenda. Jamie was inside, working on a banana gram book that Dotty had given him to work on.

Joe could feel the drainage dripping down the back of his throat and there was an ache in his chest that seemed to have grown heavier during the past few hours. His throat was feeling a little raw and he was surprisingly exhausted.

He could feel the slight tingle on his skin where the sun had left a slight burn from their extended time outdoors today. If it weren't for the darned cold that had crept up on him, everything would be perfect.

Even though it wasn't even ten yet, Joe decided to call it a night and head to bed. Jamie really wanted to go fishing in the morning and the spot that they were going to would require a small hike from their cabin.

Although Jamie had gotten up early this morning, Joe was hoping that the day of fresh air and sun would translate into his youngest son sleeping in a little. Despite the fact that he wanted to spend the day doing things with his sons, he had to admit that he must be getting older if a little cold could slow him down this much.

Rising from the glider, Joe made his way back into the cabin. A good night's rest was all that he needed, he thought as he locked the door behind him for the night.


	53. Chapter 49

CHAPTER 49

_NOTE: _

_Now that I'm going back in and fleshing and tweaking, I have to keep going back and rereading to make sure who I have and haven't used._

_And y'all know that TS does not possess the most efficient hard drive around. Anyhow, never fear, if you don't appear in this work of fiction, I've decided that my newest **modis operandi** (sp??) will be to include a GG girl or two in each of my upcoming more, uhm, dramatic pieces._

_Just please don't go creating more aliases so that you can appear more and more. I just don't have the funds to employ a personal assistant, yet._

And on that note, onward we plague!

Lee made his way through the corridor, eager to see Amanda and hoping that he might just be able to reassure her a little in regards to the boys' safety. As he neared Doc Kelford's office, he heard the hushed sounds of female voices.

Always the agent and always curious, Lee Stetson just had to check it out.

Poking his head in the doorway, he found Francine Desmond sitting huddled in a blanket and chatting with one of the freshman trainees, a Sue something or other. Right now the last name was escaping him, but, if memory served him right, she was a transplant from New York and he recalled Amanda saying something about the girl still being a little homesick.

So, he gave them his best smile.

"Evenin' little ladies," he greeted them, pretending to tip an imaginary cowboy hat.

Francine practically snorted her reply.

"That was so awful," she mumbled.

Lee shrugged. "Can you do better?"

Francine's reply consisted of a sniffle, a cough, and a look that, when she was healthy, probably would have sent Lee back on the fast path towards the Q-Bureau. Right now it only succeeded in making him feel a little sorry for her.

She then looked at Sue and gave her what Lee assumed to be an imaginary pseudo whisper.

"Sometimes he has these little fantasies of being a cowboy. You know he rides a horse now and then and thinks he's John Wayne. We just smile at him pleasantly and let him carry on."

Sue laughed.

It was, Lee thought, probably the first good laugh he'd heard in what seemed like a lifetime. And it sounded pretty darn good to him.

He looked at Sue and grinned.

"I won't tell you about her little fantasies, they scare even Phaff."

"Please," Francine drew out her favorite phrase quite slowly, giving it her best annoyance beyond all belief sound.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the blonde returned to full agent mode.

"So, what's our latest?"

"They've got a pretty efficient team upstairs working on compiling the information, I still haven't heard how Marsten is doing, and I think Billy's plotting an early retirement to Hawaii if Dirk resurfaces."

"Oh my God," Francine moaned. "Well, if I wasn't sick to begin with, I will be now. They would not even think of bringing him back."

"Whose Dirk?" Sue asked.

"Ah," Lee began.

"Oh, uhm," Francine stammered.

Both agents knew that beyond less than a handful of people, nobody knew that Dr. Smyth had passed away earlier in the day. Telling someone else within the Agency, especially a trainee, the circumstances as to why Dirk would be pulled back in was probably not something that either of them could get away with and still keep their jobs.

Francine ever so slightly nodded towards Lee, passing the ball into his court and he grudgingly acknowledged the pass with just a blink of his hazel eyes.

"Dirk used to be a director here and he, well, he was given an early retirement package of sorts."

"That doesn't sound good," Sue told them.

"Oh, well, it," Lee grimaced. "It wasn't."

"Is there a story behind this?" Sue asked eagerly.

Francine closed her eyes and moaned.

"You would ask, wouldn't you?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, it does pay to have a know of everything going on, right? And that probably means even knowing some of the stuff that's already happened, even though we weren't here but since it happened it was probably pretty important right? So, you can tell me, right? I mean, I am a trainee."

Lee and Francine both looked at one another and then laughed.

"Do you have any relatives in your family tree with the last name King?" Francine asked the younger girl softly.

"More importantly," Lee chuckled, "how are you with a lamp?"

"Huh?"

The younger woman looked dumbfounded at both of them.

"Never mind," both Lee and Francine said at the same time.

Sue gave them both a look.

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll find out eventually, if not from you two, from somewhere else."

"Ooh," Francine said. "You know, I think I'm going to like this one."

Lee nodded.

"You know, I think she'll do just fine."

Sue sat back in her chair and smiled. She folded her hands primly, sat there with her back straight and then looked Lee square in the eyes.

"So, do I hear about it from you or do I get it from a source that might just, how shall we say, twist the facts to make certain parties not look as pure as the driven snow?"

Francine raised an eyebrow.

"You have the honors," Lee indicated to Francine as he sniffled and cleared his throat.

"You need to get some rest," she replied back to him.

"I gotta check on Amanda."

"Get some rest," Francine insisted.

"I will, once I know that a team is on the way to get Amanda's sons. Then, I will rest."

"Macho," Francine told him.

"Button it, sweetheart," Lee told her with a chuckle. "It was nice meeting you, Sue."

With that Lee existed the office, positive that his every stride was being watched by two sets of eyes until he disappeared off their radar.

"Wonder if that one has ever broken into a post office," he mumbled to himself.


	54. Chapter 50

****

CHAPTER 50

Lee entered the room where Amanda was. Jeannie was sitting beside her, a cool cloth in hand that she was using to gently sponge Amanda's face.

"How is she?" Lee asked, his voice already full of concern.

"Her fever's still pretty high and she's been tossing about quite a bit," Jeannie told him.

Lee frowned as he leaned over and placed a hand on Amanda's cheek. He didn't have to have any medical training to know that she was burning up.

"Damn," he mumbled.

Then he felt the cool touch of Jeannie's hand upon his arm.

"She's going to be fine, the antibiotics need time to work."

"We don't have a lot of time with this one," he reminded her.

"I know that," Jeannie responded. "But Doctor Kelford was just in to check on her before he went to grab a few winks. Her coughing has decreased and that's a good sign. If the antibiotics weren't doing their job, she be far worse than this."

She looked up at him.

"Have you gotten any rest?"

"I don't have time for sleep," Lee angrily replied, his sharp tone cutting through the silence of the dark night like a knife.

The older woman gave him that motherly look and he instantly regretted being so sharp with her.

"I'm sorry."

"No need to be, son. You love her; you're worried about her. I understand."

"I suppose you do," he whispered. Then, he looked at the woman who had voluntarily assigned herself as caregiver and he took in her weary appearance. "What about you? When was the last time that you had any sleep?"

Jeannie smiled. "As a mother and a wife, I've learned to get by on less sleep."

Lee chuckled. "The stamina of the average housewife."

"What?"

"Somebody once made a comment about that. I never really gave it much thought, at least not until Amanda came into my life. There were a lot of things that I never really gave much thought to."

"Well, that being said, young man, you need to give some serious thought to getting some rest. You won't do Amanda or anyone else any good if you fall over. So, I'm going to leave you alone. Get some sleep."

"Yes ma'am," Lee told her.

She had almost made her way out the door when Lee's voice reached her ears.

"Jeannie?"

She turned at looked back at him.

"Yes Lee?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome son."

Lee sat down on the bed beside her as gently as he could, not wanting to waken her.

"I love you so much, you know that?" he whispered to her.

He managed to prop a pillow behind his back and propped himself against it. Then he gently pulled her into his arms, cradling her fevered body against him.

"I can't lose you Manda, I can't lose you," he whispered softly against her hair.

"God help me, I just can't."


	55. Chapter 51

CHAPTER 51 

Jamie had tried putting his pillow over his head but, so far, that wasn't working. His older brother's coughing seemed to be getting worse, instead of better.

At first, it had been annoying.

Annoyance had long since slipped into a form of concern for his older brother. Jamie hated being sick and he somehow thought that Philip might hate it even more, being that they were away from home and their mother.

Finally, deciding that he wasn't going to get any sleep, Jamie slipped out of his bed as quietly as he could and grabbed his glasses. He was awake now and with no interruptions, he figured he might as well go out to the living area and read his book.

He hadn't planned on his dad being up.

"Jamie, what are you doing up?" Joe asked him.

Jamie took in the fact that his father was sitting on the couch nursing a hot beverage.

"Philip's coughing was keeping me awake. I figured I could read until I got sleepy."

"Oh," Joe said.

"You okay Dad?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a little congested and, like you, I couldn't sleep."

Jamie frowned. Somehow something told him that his dad was more than a little congested.

Joe King saw the look of concern flash across his youngest son's face and hurriedly spoke to reassure him.

"Don't worry, Jamie. You know how your mom likes to be prepared. I already took some of the cold medicine that she packed. I'll finish my tea, go back to bed, and in the morning we'll go fishing."

"What if Philip isn't feeling any better? He sounds horrible."

"Well, he took some medicine before he went to bed, so, with some sleep tonight, he should be better. You know how summer colds are, they hit you fast and they vanish just as quickly."

"Yeah," Jamie nodded, not sure if he believed his dad or not.

"Well," Joe stood up. "I finished my tea, so I'm going back to bed. Don't stay up too late reading. I don't want you falling asleep and having some monster of a fish dragging you into the lake."

"I won't," Jamie promised. "Goodnight Dad."

"Goodnight son."

Jamie watched his father head into the other bedroom and frowned. Maybe he was being childish and maybe even a little silly but something told him they weren't going fishing tomorrow.

He settled himself down onto the couch and pulled the afghan up over his legs. Then he opened up his book and tried to read. One paragraph later and he was suddenly wishing that his mother were there. She'd know what to do.


	56. Chapter 52

CHAPTER 52 

Jeannie Melrose had just drifted off to sleep, propped up against her husband who had finally decided to get some rest himself on the couch in his office.

A soft knocking on the door brought Jeannie swiftly back to the land of the living.

"Mrs. Melrose," a hushed voice spoke.

Jeannie got up the couch slowly, not wanting to awaken Billy. She met the young woman standing inside the doorway.

"I'm sorry," she began, realizing that she did not the girl's name.

"Miranda, ma'am. Anyhow, Mr. Melrose wanted to know as soon as we made contact with Mr. Wensel, the owner of the cabin. I have him on the line now."

"I'll take the call," Jeannie told her. "Would you please wake Billy and let him know?"

"Yes ma'am," Miranda answered her.

Jeannie quickly made her way out to the desk where another girl indicated the phone.

She quickly took the call and explained who she was and why she was calling. By the time Billy had been roused and stood beside her, she was quickly jotting down the information they needed. She thanked the man on the other end and hung up the phone.

"The cabin is in Pennsylvania, a Lake Raystown. He gave me the directions. He wanted to have someone go out to them but I told him the situation was too serious to risk more contamination."

"Good," Billy said in a voice still heavily laden with sleep.

He looked out at the staff who were still up and functioning, taking a quick survey of those still struggling to keep the Agency halfway operational in her current state of distress.

"Annette, I need you to locate agents Beaman and Leatherneck, ASAP. As of now they're back on the active duty roster. I've got an urgent assignment for them."

"Should I tell Lee?" Jeannie asked.

"Where is he?"

"Finally decided that he needed some sleep," she told him.

"Not yet. Let me get this plan in motion, then we'll tell him."

She nodded.

"Come on," he told her as he took her by the arm. "I need some coffee, lousy crap that it is."

"Lead the way," his wife told him.


	57. Chapter 53

CHAPTER 53 

Lee had felt her tossing and turning in his arms, her cries awakening him from the light sleep that had finally taken over his body.

"Hush sweetheart," Lee whispered in the dark.

He felt Amanda's fevered body press up against him and he wrapped his arms around her, wanting nothing more than to give her solace.

"Lee," she sobbed his name.

"I'm right here Manda, I'm right here."

She sniffled and then pressed against his chest.

"My babies," she whispered. "Where are they?"

"They're fine Amanda, just fine."

"I don't want them to get sick, please Lee. Promise me they won't get sick."

He placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"They'll be fine Amanda. The Agency already has someone going to them. They'll be given the proper medicine and everything will be just fine. I promise."

She nodded her head, then lapsed into a coughing fit.

"Oh, baby," he whispered as he rubbed her back while she continued to cough.

He knew it had to be hurting her to cough this much and that knowledge made him feel her pain as though it were his own.

"I don't feel so good," she whispered.

"I know, I know," he told her.

"I'm scared," she said.

"Well, don't be. Doc's been treating with you some pretty potent stuff. You'll be up and around in no time."

"I'd settle for just being at home, in my own bed. With my family," she told him as her voice began shaking.

Lee gently tilted her face up, already knowing that he would find tears on her cheeks.

"It's going to be fine, I promise."

Amanda nodded her head slightly; coughing a little as her husband held her.

Finally, the spasms eased and Lee felt her slender form go limp in his arms. He could feel the steady rise and fall of her chest as she cuddled against him. Sleep had finally claimed her again and that was what she needed most, sleep and medicine combined would beat this thing.

But, he knew that even more importantly, the knowledge that her children were safe would make the most difference.

Amanda might be his wife and partner, but from day one she had always been one thing first, a mother. As her husband, he wanted nothing more than to give her the comfort of knowing that Phillip and Jamie were safe from harm.

And, as her husband, that made it just as important to him as it was to her. The boys might not be his, biologically, but they were her children and his stepsons. It was up to him to make sure that they returned home safe and sound.

He only hoped that he heard some news soon, something that would affirm the little white lie that he had just spoken to his wife.


	58. Chapter 54

CHAPTER 54 

Joe King opened his eyes slowly, the tiny effort seeming to tax his entire body far more than it should have. He knew something was terribly wrong.

His head was throbbing; his throat was so raw that it hurt to swallow and the sides of his throat ached as though the glands had swollen to twice their normal size. As if that wasn't bad enough, he knew that he was running a fever and his chest literally felt as though an elephant was sitting on it.

He struggled to sit up on the bed, finding himself drenched. Slowly he struggled to the tiny bathroom and flipped on the light. For several moments, he braced himself against the sink with one hand while covering his mouth with the other while he coughed.

When he pulled his hand away he was shocked to find a trace of bloody sputum on his palm.

"Good God," he whispered.

Panic filled him as he surveyed his reflection in the mirror and horrific images played across his mind's eye.

Quickly he washed his hands with hot soap and water, trying to force himself to stay upright while his fevered mind worked around a plan.

Drying his hands on the towel, he realized that they had only one hope. He prayed silently for a moment, then forced his aching body to move, knowing that they didn't have much time.


	59. Chapter 55 through 59

I've grouped the following set of chapters together, since they are short. And, since it was time for a little levity in the situation, I've chosen the following trio to be my victims, LOL.

Seriously though, they will have some dire straights to deal with later on. For now though, enjoy the moment, or the visual.

Oh, if you are a Beaman fan, my deepest condolensces are extended, but I simply could not resist.

**CHAPTER 55**

He had no more than opened the door to his house when the loud shrilling of the telephone began. Stashing his fishing poles against the wall, he leaped over his duffel bag and made his way to the kitchen counter where the phone sat.

"What!"

"What!"

"How the?"

This was all followed by a litany of muffled expletives that weren't necessarily meant for the ears of the caller to actually hear.

"Let me grab something to write on," he interrupted the voice on the other end. He fumbled for the small light that was somewhere on the counter, finally found it, and began looking for a working pen and scrap of paper actually large enough to write on.

"Okay, now go over that one more time," he instructed voice.

Finally, he had it all jotted down, legible as well so that he could read it later.

"Now, who am I going after?"

After the voice on the other end hung up, Leatherneck stood there, in total disbelief and shock.

"Holy shit, go away fishing for a week and the entire universe turns inside out," he said as he hung up the phone.

**CHAPTER 56**

Leatherneck slid his black Bronco up against the sidewalk in front of the Georgetown entrance of the Agency and keyed the ignition off. At this time of night, the building was dark except for the low glow of some lights that would be coming from Marsten's little foyer.

With the motor no longer running, he was feeling the stifling heat that covered the DC area and he'd only been sitting there for a few moments.

"We need some rain," he grumbled as he picked up his thermos of coffee and chugged back some of the warm beverage. He had just picked up his Kit-Kat bar when the door opened and he saw that crazy dame Claudia begin to come out. She was carrying several bags that he assumed were medical related but that wasn't what frightened him.

"Good Lord," he exclaimed, "what is she wearing?"

**CHAPTER 57**

Leatherneck quickly hopped out of his vehicle and went to meet the good doctor, his eyes still wide in disbelief.

"Uhm, Doc," he began. "Where are you going?"

"With you," she told him. "We're going after Amanda's sons."

"Yeah," Leatherneck said.

Just then another vehicle pulled up in front of the Agency, a Buick that Leatherneck quickly recognized.

"Good Lord and mother mercy," he grumbled. "I've been teamed with the geek squad."

Beaman slid out of his sedan and once again, poor Leatherneck was astounded at the fashion choice. Did these city people not know anything about how to dress properly for an in the field of assignment.

Hoisting Claudia's bags upward, he made his way to the back of the Bronco, mumbling with each step about writing Billy a memo.

**CHAPTER 58**

Hoisting Claudia's bags upward, he made his way to the back of the Bronco, mumbling with each step about writing Billy a memo. Then Leatherneck opened up the tailgate and put the cargo in.

Claudia and Beaman stood there on the sidewalk, waiting patiently for him and leaving Leatherneck to wonder how either of them had survived in this business for as long as they had.

Beaman was attired in a pair of dark blue jeans, the bottoms of the pants tucked down inside a pair of faded cowboy boots. If that wasn't bad enough, the jeans looked to be about two sizes too big and were cinched with a wide belt that left a lot to be desired as far as aesthetic appeal.

The shirt, and then there was the little squirrel's shirt. A hideous array of bright orange and blue and tropical green birds adorned the agent that Leatherneck had long ago dubbed the squirrel. And then, then to top it all off, he was wearing one of those odd little hats. Anyone would know the type, just picture Gilligan from that wacky television show.

And he was carrying some sort of bag, an odd mustard yellow color that made Leatherneck cringe.

But that wasn't the worst part of the nightmare, oh no.

It was the woman standing beside the squirrel, the crazy dame who was actually a physician.

Leatherneck took a few moments to once again survey her and then, if he would have been Catholic, he would have been crossing himself and chanting those hail Mary thingamabobs. He really hoped that Amanda's sons and ex-husband weren't in need of the cavalry, because, from the looks of it, if this was all that was left of the good guys, the free world was in serious doo-doo.

**CHAPTER 59**

To Leatherneck's eyes, the woman standing on the sidewalk beneath the illumination from the streetlights, was very far removed the vision that he had of your average medicine man, or woman, as the case might be.

The good doctor was attired in some sort of khaki jumpsuit. That wasn't the bad part of the nightmare. Heck, he might have even been able to deal with the navy blue hiking boots that peeked out from beneath the hem of the pants. But it was the hat and the neck scarf that were blinding him.

Her hat was one of those safari types, adorned with a silk scarf that trailed halfway down her back. And the scarf, Lord have mercy, it was the most fluorescent hideous shade of orange that he had ever seen. He wasn't even sure how that color combination had been achieved and he was, if he did say so himself, pretty good at mixing paints to obtain just the desired color for any vehicle that found its way into the Agency garage.

What really bothered him was how on earth had not one, but two scarves with the same shocking color been acquired, for she wore the matching twin around her neck, the long ends trailing down the open expanse of skin courtesy of the fact that she had barely pulled the zipper up past her bellybutton.

It was Claudia's voice that broke through his fashion and color analysis and he brought his eyes back into focus to find her fumbling in the green adorned with white posies bag that hung from her shoulder.

"Before we go anywhere, I need to give you boys your first dose of the antibiotic. Purely precautionary, you understand, but it wouldn't do to have either of you become ill on this journey.

She was already pulling a hypodermic out of the bag when a flash of headlights down the street caught Leatherneck's eyes.

"Hey, uhm, Doc? How bout we leave that to inside the vehicle? I don't think we've got time to explain to the metro coppers why we're standing out here on the sidewalk, in the middle of the night, with needles."

"Oh," Claudia said. "I suppose you're right. A woman standing on a street corner with two men. You're absolutely right, it wouldn't look very good for the Agency."

With that, she replaced the hypodermic back into her bag and walked to the awaiting Bronco.

"Well, boys, what are we waiting for? Let's hit the dirty road."

"That's dirt road, Doc, dirt road," Leatherneck corrected her as he walked around the front of his vehicle.

Claudia climbed up into the back seat and Beaman got in the passenger seat. He looked anxiously at Leatherneck.

"Did you bring any coffee?"

"A good scout is always prepared, there's a thermos for each of you. Taste pleasers are in the brown bag beside the Doc."

"Thank goodness," Beaman mumbled.


	60. Chapter 60

**CHAPTER 60**

Jamie awoke to the sensation of someone shaking him and he sat up on the couch, not sure of where he was or who was trying to awaken him at first.

"Jamie. Son, wake up."

"Huh? Dad?"

"Jamie, wake up."

Jamie opened his eyes and then pushed his glasses back into position on his nose. Immediately the image of his father popped into focus.

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"I don't know son. Now, don't be scared."

Jamie looked at his father who was now wearing a heavy sweatshirt and still shaking despite the hot humid summer night. His face seemed pale and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Jamie asked him again, his voice quavering a little even to his own ears.

"Son," Joe began, "I need you to do something very important, okay?"

"What?"

"I don't think this is a summer cold. I thought it was and I thought I could shake it, but I now know that I can't. And, I just checked on Philip and he isn't getting any better. Now, I need you to listen to me and do exactly what I say, okay?"

"Yeah," Jamie nodded.

He then waited patiently until his father coughed a few times.

Joe handed him the keys to Amanda's Jeep.

"Do you remember how to get to the store out at the main highway?"

Jamie thought for a minute.

"You go back the dirt road and when you come to the fork, you go left?"

Joe nodded and then coughed again.

"Right. Once you go left, you stay on that dirt road. You need to follow it all the way out to the main highway. The convenience store is right there. Now, I need for you to go inside and ask them about getting a doctor to come down here. The people that own that store are good people, so don't be afraid of them, son."

"In the middle of the night? Are they still open?"

Joe frowned. "I can't remember if they're a twenty-four hour store or not. But, if not, there's a pay phone. Dial the operator and tell her where you are and ask her to help you get a doctor. Tell them it's an emergency."

"Dad, are you going to be okay?"

Joe nodded.

"I will be. But I think Philip may be getting pneumonia or something and I can't drive Jamie. I'm too dizzy to even stand up for very long. I can't take the chance of trying to drive you fellows back out there without passing out at the wheel."

"I guess I can do that. Won't Mom be mad if she finds out I'm driving her car?"

Joe gave him a weak smile.

"Trust me, your Mom won't say anything except that she's proud of you for looking out for us. Now, just drive slow, keep your lights on and you'll do fine. The road's curvy, but if you take it slow, you can do it Jamie, I know you can. Just put it into drive and go slow. And remember, when you get to the store, put it into park first, then, shut the engine off. And don't lock the keys inside."

Jamie looked at his father and for a moment, tears seemed to tickle his eyes and threaten to spill. But, with another look at his father's glazed eyes and pale face, he knew that he was being counted on and this was really important.

Jamie reached over and hugged his dad tightly.

"I can do this. I love you Dad."

"I love you too, Jamie. Now, get going and be careful."

Jamie stood up and ran to grab his shoes. Then, after one more hug, he made his way out to his mother's vehicle.

He took a very deep breath before he climbed in and then, after he had slid the key into the ignition, he said a quick prayer.


	61. Chapter 61

****

CHAPTER 61

Jeannie Melrose slowly pushed open the door to the tiny room. If the occupants were sleeping, she didn't wish to disturb them, but at the same time she knew that they would be most anxious to hear the latest developments.

She had taken about two steps in when she stopped and then she smiled.

They were quite the pair, all snuggled up together on that tiny bed. Lee's long and powerful form wrapped around Amanda's tinier frame as if, even in sleep he was always her protector. From what William had told her over the years, Lee had indeed, from day one, placed himself into that role. She chuckled, knowing that, in the beginning, Lee had denied it even though his actions had spoken quite differently.

Jeannie silently approached the bed, listening for any changes in their breathing that would foretell of either of them awakening. Sleep was what they needed the most.

She lightly placed her hand on Amanda's forehead and yet again, Jeannie smiled.

From the slight but experienced touch of a mother, Jeannie was able to know that Amanda's fever was diminishing, a positive indicator that the meds were doing their job.

She couldn't help but smile; knowing that when Lee awoke and learned this, a great deal of his own personal worries would diminish as well.

And, once he learned that there was a team on the way to assist with the boys, Jeannie Melrose was sure that Lee Stetson would also find a reason to smile when the sun rose upon the new day.


	62. Chapter 62

CHAPTER 62

Jamie drove slowly through the dark night, his eyes paying careful attention to the road. Even with the sound of the engine cutting through the night, he could still hear his heart beating. His Dad may think that he had bluffed him, but Jamie knew. This was very serious or else his Dad would never have given him the keys to the Jeep.

"Stop it," he told himself as he tried to concentrate on the dirt and gravel road.

Didn't his grandmother always say something about it doesn't do one any good to brood upon something?

"Enough Carl James King," he scolded himself.

Jamie decided right then that he needed something to help him out. He left his foot off the gas and slowed the vehicle down; not that he was going that fast anyhow. Carefully, he reached over and turned the radio on.

Then, he pressed the scan button until it settled on a radio station, which took it a bit to do. Obviously this area of Pennsylvania didn't have much of a selection, not like back home. But, it did find one and stopped, lending the gentle sounds of a country ballad to the eerie black silence around him.

Okay, so it wasn't exactly his first choice but it did beat that jazz station his mom liked to listen to when she insisted she had to relax a little while driving. Besides, this station had that cute frog for a logo and he'd seen the yellow bumper stickers with the little froggy on the backs of many vehicles as they'd gotten closer to the cabin the day they had arrived.

With the music to help settle his nerves, he pressed down on the gas again and began motoring along the lonely dark road.

"I can do this," he told himself.

And he was, fairly well too, until he began rounding the sharp curve.

An eerie glow of bluish green dots appeared in the middle of the road.

It was at that moment that several deer chose to run across the dirt road, right in front of the Jeep.

Their eyes glowed in the beams from the headlights and Jamie reacted on instinct, his foot slamming down on the brake hard.

It all happened so fast that Jamie didn't have time to react any further. In a flash, the Jeep began skidding on the gravel and then collided with one of the deer.

There was a sudden jolt and then it seemed to Jamie as though his world began tilting sideways.

Then, everything went dark.


	63. Chapter 63

CHAPTER 63

Amanda's movement in her sleep, her hand sliding up Lee's chest, was what brought the weary agent out of his own slumber. He blinked his eyes a few times and yawned, his body slowly coming back to awareness.

Of course, one of the first things he noticed was where Amanda's hand was and he smiled at the sensation she was unknowingly creating. He couldn't resist shifting a little so that he could look down at her face and he was rewarded by the slight curve of a smile partially hidden behind the tousled dark waves that framed her face.

Even sick, Lee thought she was the most beautiful woman that he had ever known and he thought he could spend a lifetime just simply watching her sleep.

As if knowing she was the subject of his observation, she moved her head just a little and then her dark eyes opened and locked on his.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hello there," he greeted her. "How are you feeling?"

"Sleepy," she responded.

Lee smiled and moved to press a soft kiss on her forehead.

"I think you're fever's broken," he told her with a grin.

"That's good," she told him in a soft voice as she snuggled against him.

"Told you Doc had given you some good drugs," Lee teased her.

"What time is it?"

Lee glanced at his watch.

"A little after four," he told her.

"Morning?" she asked, clearly confused as to what time zone she was in.

Lee nodded.

"The boys?"

"I don't know. I guess I fell asleep on watch," he told her.

Amanda raised her head and smiled at him.

"You needed to rest too," she pointed out to him.

"Yeah, I could feel that damned thing trying to hit me but I guess I was lucky enough to nip it in the bud. I don't even want to imagine how bad you're feeling."

"Really, I feel better," Amanda told him.

Lee felt her move to try and sit up, as if needing to prove her point. The action clearly cost her as she closed her eyes and grimaced a little.

Concern for her prompted Lee to gently push her back down onto the pillows.

"Not so fast, partner."

"Maybe not," she admitted.

"Will you be okay if I go find out the latest?" Lee asked her.

She gave him the brilliant smile of hers and he couldn't help but lean down and kiss her gently.

"I take that as a yes," he told her. "I'll be back as soon as I find out anything."

"I'll just go back to sleep," she replied.

"I won't be long," Lee said as he slid out of the bed. Then, he moved to tuck the blanket back around her. "I love you, Mrs. Stetson."

"Love you too," she murmured.

Lee watched her dark eyes drift shut and knew that she'd be fast asleep before he turned at the end of the corridor. With a hopeful smile, he left his wife and headed out, praying that he was going to be rewarded with the answers that they had been praying for.


	64. Chapter 64

****

CHAPTER 64

PART 1

"There's the turnoff," Beaman said.

Leatherneck slowed the vehicle down and then turned the Ford Bronco down the dirt and gravel road.

Beaman continued gazing out the window, thinking that it looked lonely and desolate out here, nothing but giant dark trees lining the road. He was used to the bright lights of the city, always there, anytime of day or night, to remind you that there were other people out there. Out here, the lights that indicated human presence were few and far between. Nothing but little farmhouses with what seemed like miles of eternity in between them.

Silence filled the vehicle as they drove down the lonely road, knowing that it led not just to a summer lakeside cabin. Beaman only hoped that they weren't too late.

"Look!" Claudia suddenly exclaimed.

"My God, that's Amanda Jeep," Leatherneck said.

He pulled over to where the Jeep was, resting on its side along the road. The headlights were still on, pointed at nothing but the woods surrounding the road.

He hadn't even put the Bronco into park before Beaman was out of the vehicle and running over to the Jeep.

Claudia followed Beaman and Leatherneck quickly took a moment to align the Bronco, angling the vehicle so that the headlights were shining on Amanda's vehicle.

****

PART 2

Amanda stirred as she felt Lee sitting down on the bed beside her. She opened up her eyes to gaze at her husband. He was smiling.

"Hi," she whispered.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," he told her.

"What did you find out?"

Lee clasped her hand in his.

"Good news, Beaman and Leatherneck on their way with Dr. Joyce. They should be reaching the cabin soon. They'll contact us as soon as they can."

Amanda smiled with relief.

"I hope they're okay," she told him.

"They're going to be fine Amanda, just fine."

He squeezed her hand again, hoping to give her some reassurance.


	65. Chapter 65

****

CHAPTER 65

"Jamie!"

In the dark fog, he thought he could hear a voice beckoning to him. It was the sound of a stranger, an unknown voice calling to him, again and again. He tried to open his eyes, he tried awfully hard, but it was such an effort that he couldn't do it.

Then again, he knew that there was something important that he was to be doing. He needed to be up. He needed to open his eyes, but the only thing that happened was a strange sound filled his ears. It reminded him of a groan, had it been him?

"Jamie, come on, wake up son," the voice called again.

"Jamie?"

This time it was a woman's voice, calling to him.

"Mom?"

Then, Jamie felt a hand on his shoulder.

He had to open his eyes.

Slowly, he managed to do so and, for a moment, everything was fuzzy. Multiple faces framed by a bright light were staring at him.

He blinked a few times and then everything snapped back into focus. The multiple faces turned into just three people, all looking at him with concern.

"That's it son, wake up," the man's voice instructed him.

"Who are you?" Jamie whispered.

"My name's Dwayne and I'm a friend of your mom and Lee. We're to help you, son. Hold still a minute and we'll get you out of this seatbelt."

"Mom?" Jamie asked again.

"It's all right Jamie, just relax a moment."

The boy closed his eyes wearily, his head throbbing as though the entire middle school band was now marching inside his head, banging loudly and repeatedly on the drums.

He groaned as he felt whatever had been holding him tight against the seat give way and then hands were pulling him out of the vehicle.

"Ouch," he grumbled.

"Sorry son. You took a nasty bump to the head."

"Probably hit against the steering wheel," said another male voice.

Yet again Jamie's world swirled around him as he felt someone carrying him from the Jeep. They settled him up against something large and rough and he finally realized that it was a tree.

He managed to open his eyes again and saw the unknown woman looking at him much the same way his mother did whenever he crashed his bike or did something else that was decidedly stupid and usually resulted in a boo-boo that would make both his mother and grandmother fuss for what seemed like forever.

But, like his mother, this woman's hands possessed that same type of gentle touch. It was almost as comforting. Or it was, until he felt his arm being pricked by something.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry Jamie, but I had to give you that, in case you picked up any nasties when your head met the steering wheel."

"Jamie what were you doing out here, by yourself?" Dwayne asked him.

Suddenly, the reason why he was out here hit him full force and panic filled the young boy.

"Dad, Philip, they're really sick and Dad wanted me to go get help and he told me it was okay to drive to the store and find someone. Mom's gonna be mad at me, isn't she, cause I wrecked her Jeep, but the deer came out of nowhere and fast and I don't even have a license. Oh gosh, does that mean I'm gonna get in trouble?"

Dwayne chuckled at the speed at which Jamie spoke. The young man was definitely Amanda's son.

He placed a comforting hand on Jamie's shoulder.

"No, Jamie. You aren't in any trouble. And that's why we're here. To help you. Claudia is a doctor."

Jamie looked at the woman, his youthful eyes full of hope behind the lenses of his glasses.

"You can make Philip and Dad better? Dad said that he thought Philip might have pneumonia and that's bad, isn't it?"

Claudia smiled at him.

"It's bad, but I've got medicine for those nasties too. Now, if you think you can stand, why don't we get you in the car and go get your dad and Philip, okay?"

Jamie nodded eagerly.


	66. Chapter 66

****

CHAPTER 66

Part 1

Once all of his passengers were inside, Leatherneck keyed the inanition and the Bronco's engine roared to life. He guided the vehicle expertly back down the road, around the curve and avoiding some of the potholes that would have bounced his passengers around.

That's when he noticed. It was the feeling of being watched.

He turned his slightly, smiling as he found Jamie steadfastly observing every move he made.

"You still want your driver's license?" Dwayne chuckled.

Jamie nodded shyly before he spoke.

"But Mom will never let me now," he said solemnly.

Leatherneck smiled over at the teenager. He knew the feeling, the burden of having multiple worries hanging on your shoulder. The only difference was that Jamie was far too young to be having that dilemma. What the boy needed now was something positive, a reassurance among the worries.

"You don't worry about your Mom on this one," Dwayne told him.

"You ever seen my Mom when she's angry?" Jamie asked him.

Dwayne chuckled.

"Like I said, I've known your mom for awhile now and don't you worry, I can take care of this one for her as well."

Jamie looked at him, a puzzled expression on his young face.

"Is that the cabin?" Leatherneck suddenly asked him

"Yeah," Jamie told him.

"Good. Let's go take care of your Dad and brother, okay?"

Leatherneck easily maneuvered the vehicle close to the porch and killed the engine.

Jamie was already hastily unbuckling his seatbelt and Dr. Joyce and Beaman were already scooting out.

Dwayne placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder before the youngster could open his door.

"Jamie?"

"Yeah?"

"I promise I'll take care of the Jeep for you, okay? Trust me?"

Jamie looked at the man who, up until a few minutes ago, he had never seen before in his life. His mother had always cautioned her sons about strangers. Heck, both he and Phillip could recite her rules and speeches in their sleep. He probably shouldn't be trusting this man but there was something about him, whether it was the voice or the expression on the guy's face Jamie was not sure, but deep down inside he knew that he could trust the man.

"I trust you," Jamie finally said.

Leatherneck smiled at him.

"Come on, son. Let's go help your family, okay?"

****

Part 2

When Jeannie Melrose entered the little office that had been converted into a sick room, she found Francine sitting up in the one bed, her back against the wall and huddled in a blanket. The agent's normally glamorously styled blonde hair had been pulled back haphazardly in a ponytail and her face was far too pale for her complexion. Dark circles were very evident under her eyes and she looked as exhausted as Jeannie felt.

On the other bed, Lee Stetson was propped up against the pillows, his arms wrapped around his wife. Lee didn't look much better than Francine, his handsome face seemed etched with worry lines, his hair clearly showed that he had been raking his hands through it, and dark shadow revealed the need for a shave.

Jeannie couldn't see any of Amanda's face. The younger woman's face was hidden from view by a mass of tousled dark waves as she snuggled against her husband's chest.

"Sleeping?" Jeannie asked in a soft voice.

Lee nodded.

"I just wanted to see how you were all holding up," she told them.

Francine shrugged.

"Probably as good as anyone else," she offered.

Jeannie smiled.

"Actually, the Agency seems to be holding up better than some of the other groups, according to Billy."

"Really?" Lee asked.

Jeannie nodded as she lowered herself into the chair beside the bed.

"Billy's been on some phone calls but I gathered that the President was quite impressed with how quickly the Agency managed to jump into action."

"Well, we're slightly smaller than some of the other groups," Francine said.

"I don't think size has anything to do with it," Jeannie told them. "I believe the wording had something to do with efficiency."

"Efficient would have been stopping this thing before it started," Lee grumbled.

Jeannie watched the man, observing how his hand continually moved in a light stroking pattern on Amanda's back.

"I think it would be rather hard to stop something that you can't see," she replied.

Francine coughed a little before adding her own input.

"They're going to wish they never started this," she croaked out, before coughing again.

"Revenge isn't always sweet," Jeannie pointed out to her.

"No, but Desmond retaliation is going to make me feel so much better."

Francine's voice may have sounded weak and raspy from the illness, but there was no denying the spunk hidden beneath the words.

The three of them were all surprised to hear another raspy voice, supposedly asleep but obviously awake and listening to every word.

"I'm all for a little retaliation," they heard Amanda mumble.

Jeannie chuckled softly.

"I'd hate to be the bad guys with you three on the case," she stated.

"That's why Billy keeps us on the payroll," Lee said with a tired laugh.

The slight brevity of the moment was broken by the soft sound of a knock on the door.

Four pairs of eyes turned to look, each one wondering what the new visitor had to bring them in way of news and each one of them hoping that the hour of bad tidings had slipped into the past.


	67. Chapter 67

****

CHAPTER 67

****

PART 1

Billy Melrose opened the door slowly, expecting to find sleeping people on the other side. What he found instead was a group of four people anxiously looking at him.

"Well," he said. "Looks like I've got an audience."

"Hello to you too," Lee replied.

Billy gave him a tired smile, then sat down on the remaining chair.

To Lee's eyes, his boss looked tired, drained. Of course, given the circumstances, Lee knew that he probably didn't look any better than his boss did at the present moment.

"I wanted to let you know that Leatherneck and crew contacted us just as the crossed into Pennsylvania, near a town called Breezewood. They should be close if not already to the cabin."

"That's wonderful," Jeannie quickly said.

"When will we know anything?" Amanda asked.

"It might be awhile. Leatherneck said that with the rural mountainous conditions he probably won't be able to get a signal on the mobile phone."

Melrose watched as Amanda's face quickly turned from joy to worry.

"Amanda, you know he'll contact us as soon as he's able. Try not to worry," he told her, his tone as reassuring as he could get.

She nodded, knowing all too well that there was nothing she could, except to sit and worry.

"They'll be fine Amanda," Francine added.

"Yeah," she whispered, before turning her face back against her husband's chest and clinging to him tightly.

****

PART 2

Claudia heard the footsteps come up behind her as she examined Joe King. Phillip King was sick, definitely with the plague, but his father was a much sicker patient.

She turned and found Leatherneck looking at her, an expectant look on his face. Since there was no way to avoid the necessity of what she needed, she stood up and moved closer to him.

When she spoke, it was in a hushed tone.

"Can you get me a medevac?" she asked him.

"Not good?"

"The sooner, the better," she told him before turning around and redirecting her attentions to her new patient.


	68. Chapter 68

CHAPTER 68

Leatherneck and Beaman stood in front of the cabin, watching as the personnel loaded Phillip and Joe King into the awaiting helicopter. Jamie stood a few feet in front of them, watching silently as his family was being taken away from him.

Then, the door slid shut and the flying ambulance lifted into the still darkened sky as it began her journey of mercy.

For as long as he could see the whirlybird and her flashing lights, Jamie kept his eyes focused on it. Finally, when he could no longer see it in the sky, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Jamie," Dwayne said to him.

The boy turned around and looked at him, his face one of grim determination. Leatherneck gave him credit as he watched the valiant struggle to hold back the tears that threatened to spill.

"Come on son, why don't we pack up your gear and head back home?"

"Mom's Jeep," the boy began.

"I'll take care of it," Dwayne promised him.

Jamie nodded, then slowly walked back into the cabin, moving one foot in front of the other in a manner that told Dwayne the youngster was clearly exhausted.

"He'll sleep all the way back to DC," Beaman observed.

Leatherneck nodded.

"Maybe it's best that way," he responded. "Look, squirrel, you help him in there, I've got a call to make."

Beaman looked as though he might be contemplating a hostile retort back, but then he simply sighed. Without a word, he followed Jamie back into the cabin.

Leatherneck went back to the Bronco and swung open the driver's side door. Then he pulled the CB radio mike from the holding bracket.

"Breaker, breaker, this is Flying American Eagle scouting for American Blue, repeat Flying American Eagle scouting for American Blue, do you copy?"

Nothing but static came from the unit and Leatherneck repeated his hail.

This time the static was replaced by a voice.

"Yeah, this is American Blue. What the devil do ya think you're doing, hailing me before I've had my morning jolt of caffeine?"

"Good morning to you too, ole buddy. Hey listen, you ole scoundrel, I've got an Uncle Sam assist, if you're able?"

"Morning? Good Lord, what did you do now?"

"I did nothing," Leatherneck insisted. "Are you able?"

"Ten-four, let me finish my cocoa bean and I'll be back on the waves in about ten."

"Ten-four, I copy. I give you ten."


	69. Chapter 69

****

CHAPTER 69

PART 1

The faintest hint of red was just becoming visible over the skies of the DC metroplex when William Melrose received the update. He hung up the phone and inhaled deeply several times. Out of all the aspects of his job that he disliked, this was one of the ones he hated the most, the times that called for him to be the messenger of bad news.

He stayed seated in his chair for a few moments, dreading this particular walk. Delaying it would not make it go away though, and he knew, if the situation was reversed, he would want to know.

With a groan, he pulled his weary body up out of his chair and headed to the door, once again taking the unpleasant path that would lead to certain changes in someone's life, or, in this case, in many lives.

****

PART 2

The Bronco was finally loaded with all of the gear that the King family had brought for what should have been a wonderful vacation. Instead, it had turned into a summer tragedy.

Silence filled the vehicle as Leatherneck turned it around in the small drive and pointed them away from the lake. He watched in silence as the grassy meadow on the one side of them, the one where the medevac had landed last night, slipped by them. In the rearview mirror he could see the quaint summer cabin growing smaller and smaller.

Soon, they were on the dirt and gravel lane that would lead them back to the highway. In the distance, he could see the first rays of dawn appearing through the trees. A glance down at his watch told him they should be back at the Agency around noon, at the latest, depending on the traffic.

They had driven a few miles, the same few that Jamie had navigated successfully in the wee hours of darkness before coming to the curve in the road where the Jeep had met foul with the four-legged, car damaging critters.

Only now, the Jeep was already in the process of being loaded onto a tow truck. Leatherneck pulled up alongside the bright green and yellow vehicle and put the Bronco into park.

"I'll just be a moment," he told his passengers as he slipped out the driver's door.

An older man, wearing jeans, a green tee shirt and a baseball cap came round the front of the tow-truck.

"Dwayne! You ole scoundrel!"

"Hey Homer, how ya doing?"

The two men exchanged a handshake, and then Homer looked over at the new occupant of his trailer.

"Do I want to know?" he asked the younger agent.

"She belongs to a friend of mine. She's Agency, so you'll be compensated."

"I love government green," the old man replied. "How soon do you need her back?"

"The owner's in DC, we'll arrange a loaner for her. You just weave a little magic for me, huh?"

"She'll be good as new when I get done with her, you know that my boy. So, I take it you still won't declassify this?"

"Not much. Did you follow my instructions?"

Homer nodded.

"Disinfected her, got me gloves, and yes, I'll pay a visit to grumpy Doc Morgan once he opens up shop and has had his morning coffee."

Leatherneck nodded.

"Make sure that you do. I don't know if you can really catch this thing or not, but we don't want you taking any chances."

"Hell no, not if I plan on towing this baby down to the big city. I do get mileage as well, right my boy?"

"Homer, I told you that you would be well compensated and I mean that. Has the Agency ever reneged on a promise to you?"

"Nope, my boy, not once."

"Look, I wish I had more time to chat, but I've got to get my passengers home ASAP."

Homer glanced over Leatherneck's shoulder and caught sight of the young boy sitting there.

"Who's your co-pilot?"

"This is his mom's vehicle. Pretty urgent that I get him back there."

"Well then, I tell you what, I'll fix this little baby up right and then, when I get down to DC in a few days, beer and steaks and a tale, right my boy?"

"Deal Homer, deal. Don't forget, you visit with Doc Morgan as soon as his office opens up. And, if he's got any questions, you have him call Kelford."

"Will do, my boy, will do. I'll see ya in a few days."

"Thanks old friend, I owe ya one."

Leatherneck turned and walked back to the Bronco. There were only two other people that he would entrust Amanda's vehicle to and Homer was the only one of them on the East Coast. Satisfied that it would be tended to properly, he climbed back into the vehicle.

"Back to DC," he told his passengers as he put the vehicle into drive.

By the time they had turned off of the old road and gotten back onto Route 26, Jamie King had finally fallen asleep.


	70. Chapter 70

****

CHAPTER 70

William Melrose paused for a moment just outside of the door, taking in the scene before him. His wife had finally relinquished her role as caregiver, at least momentarily, and was now sleeping on one of the beds. Francine was sitting on a chair near Amanda's bed, obviously so she could talk quietly to her coworker.

But it was Lee's actions that caught the attention of the Section Chief. He was gently dabbing a wet cloth on Amanda's face and wearing that worrisome look that always had appeared when Lee presumed Amanda to be in danger.

Francine looked up at her boss, her nose slightly red and a tissue in her hand.

Billy glanced towards Amanda and Francine slipped quietly out of her chair to walk over to the doorway.

"Her fever climbed back up a little," she offered as way of explanation.

"Serious?"

"Kelford doesn't think so, he said it was low-grade."

"I see," Billy said. He then paused to clear his own throat. "I need to talk to Lee," he told his assistant in as low of a voice that he could muster.

One look at the Section Chief's face told Desmond that it had to be serious. She walked back over to Lee and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

It was obvious from Lee's face that he didn't want to leave Amanda's side, but Francine quietly told him that she'd sit with her.

Lee stood up slowly, his hazel eyes never straying from the sight of his sleeping wife. He leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before finally walking out of the room.

Something in his gut told him that this couldn't be good.

He followed his Section Chief down the hallway, the boss unmistakably wanting to ensure that they were out of hearing range.

Billy cleared his throat again before speaking.

"I just received word that Phillip and Joe are en route to the hospital via Medevac."

Lee's eyes widened at that one.

"Serious?"

"Joyce reported that they're both very sick," Billy informed him.

"Jamie?" Lee asked quickly.

"He's with Leatherneck and Beaman in the Bronco. Apparently, he hadn't developed any symptoms. Claudia felt that it was better if he wasn't in the chopper for this trip."

Lee began to pace in a small circle, shaking his head at the implications of Billy's words.

"Somebody should be with Phillip, he can't be alone Billy. He needs to have someone there."

Billy reached out and placed a hand on Lee's arm.

"I know. I've arranged for a driver to take you. I was hoping that Amanda might have been up to going as well."

Lee shook his head quickly.

"No, no," he responded quickly. "She's too sick. I know she'd want to be there, but she can't."

"The driver's down in the garage, waiting for you."

"Give me a minute, would ya?"

"Of course," he told the younger man.

Lee walked back into the room, trying very hard to conceal his emotions behind the mask that had always served him so well. He could recall a time, a lifetime ago it seemed, when it had been so easy to cover it all with the persona of Scarecrow and hide what he was feeling from everyone else in the world.

From the look in Francine's eyes, his told trick must not be working so well.

She quickly stood up and crossed over to him, concern written on her exhausted face.

"Lee?"

Instead of saying anything, he tugged her arm and pulled her out into the hallway.

"They, ah…they're bringing Phillip and Joe in by Medevac," he whispered.

"That bad?" she asked with disbelief.

Lee nodded.

"Look, I…I need to be there for them. Phillip shouldn't be left alone, he needs to have someone there."

"What about Jamie?"

Lee actually chuckled.

"He seems fine. He's with the fellas, driving back down from Pennsylvania."

"He'll be scarred for life," Francine told him in a gentle teasing voice.

Lee brought his hand up and rubbed his throbbing forehead.

"I should tell Manda," he said.

"Lee," Francine began, "she's asleep. Look, you don't know much, other than they're sick. Go find out first. You wouldn't want her to worry needlessly, would you?"

"This is her son, Francine."

"I know, I know," she told him.

Francine reached for both of Lee's hands, clasping them in hers.

"They're going to be fine," she told him. "Amanda's going to be fine. You'll see."

"I want to believe that, but…shit Francine," he said as he paced a few steps away from her and then back again. "You know what's it like when you're out there in the field and you've got everything planned down to when everyone breathes and you get that gut instinct?"

"Lee, you're tired, you're sick, you worried. That's all that it is," she tried to pacify him.

"I don't think so," he told her. "Look, I…I need to go. Billy's arranged for a driver. I want to be at the hospital by the time they get there."

"I'll look after Amanda," she told him.

"And who will look after you, huh? After all, we're a pretty sickly bunch right now."

She gave him that Desmond smile.

"I can look after myself. Go on, you've got a son who needs you."

"Don't tell her," Lee said.

"Me? Divulge classified information? I've never done that in my whole career."

Lee accepted her bait and she was rewarded by a smile. A smile, that no matter how small, was still a smile.

"You haven't, huh?"

She shook her head, her ponytail swishing about as she denied the question.

"Nope," she told him.

"We'll talk about that some other time, loose lips."

"Yeah, we will. About the same time you talk to me about what really goes on in the Q-Bureau when the door is locked."

"Touché," Lee said.

With that, Stetson turned and walked down the corridor, going to meet who knew what?

Francine pressed the palms of her hands together, than brought them up to her mouth. She tapped her fingers together a few times, then turned to go back into the room.

She knew perfectly well the feeling that Lee had just described. It was the one that foretold of everything going to hell in a hand basket. What she hadn't told him was that she felt the very same way. She could only pray that they were both wrong. Totally and absolutely wrong.


	71. Chapter 71

CHAPTER 71

PART 1

When Lee Stetson arrived at the hospital, a man who, judging by his uniform, had to be one of Colonel McJohn's, greeted him. Wordlessly, the man led him down the corridors until they reached a small private room.

Without any emotion, the man instructed Lee to wait, that someone would be with him soon.

Lee sat down in the chair, impatient for answers, eager to see his stepson and filled with the need to know that everything was going to be fine. He gazed around the room, taking in the few chairs and one lone couch. He wondered how many individuals had sat there, awaiting news on their loved one and how many of them had heard the words that nobody ever wants to hear.

He barely registered the paintings that depicted serene country settings or the cross that hung on the one wall. Likewise, his surveying eyes scarcely registered the fact that there were frayed tears in the carpet in the one corner and what looked like a baby's pacifier peeking out from behind the television that wasn't turned on.

Finally, his gaze settled on the clock and his eyes watched the slow ticking of the second hand as it worked round the clock, time and time again.

An eternity seemed to crawl by until the Colonel joined him and Lee stood up quickly, the questions beginning to rush from him.

"Whoa, Lee, hold on," McJohn said as he held up his hands to stop the barrage. "Why don't we sit down for a minute?"

McJohn indicated the chair that Lee had just sprang from and, judging from the look on the Colonel's face, Lee could only assume that he wasn't going to get any answers until he did what the man requested.

So, he did the only thing that he could do. Lee Stetson sat back down.

PART 2

Amanda sat up in the bed, sipping at glass of very cold and very refreshing iced tea. She was trying to keep her mind from thinking too much, but all of the thoughts and all of the worries didn't seem to want to go away.

She only knew that Lee had gone to be there when the boys and Joe returned. If anyone knew anything else, they certainly weren't telling. Francine had quickly made herself scarce once she knew that Amanda was awake and going to stay that way for awhile. Doctor Kelford had been in several times to check on her and seemed immensely happy to tell Amanda that her fever had, once again, gone back down.

Amanda subconsciously rubbed her arm where yet another injection of potent antibiotics had been administered. Her arm was already bruised, the dark area an interesting shade of purple and blue against her lightly tanned flesh.

She wondered till it was all said and done just how bruised her arm would be.

Jeannie had awakened and, after ensuring that Amanda would be fine if left on her own for awhile, had gone in search of her husband.

That left Amanda by herself, with a head full of worry in regards to her children and her ex-husband. If she would have felt any better, she would have crawled out of the bed and gone in search of the answers.

Of course, she had tried that once, right after Jeannie had left. That attempt had left her seeing stars and crashing back down on the bed with a thud that clearly told her that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

There was nothing that she could do, for the moment, except drink her tea and hope that everything was going to be okay.

PART 3

Leatherneck glanced over at the sleeping boy in the passenger seat. Jamie hadn't stirred once, a testament to the fact that he had to be exhausted.

To take away the boredom, Leatherneck and Beaman had chatted quietly, comparing notes about what they had done on their vacations prior to being called back to duty.

Truthfully, Leatherneck had always assumed that Beaman was little more than one of those nerdy geeks who had kept his head in a book the entire way through his educational years. In fact, Dwayne could never understand why the brainiac that he had dubbed "squirrel" was even in the intelligence community at all.

What he learned on the trip back from Pennsylvania, during that hushed conversation, surprised him just a little. Maybe there was more to Beaman than just spouting facts and figures and the once a year pursuit of Francine Desmond during the holidays.

Of course, Agency regulations applied, even here in the black Bronco that wove its way through the lunch time traffic. Some things were just meant to remain classified, even if it did concern the "squirrel".


	72. Chapter 72

****

CHAPTER 72

McJohn guided Lee to the room where Phillip was and then left him alone with the boy. Lee walked in quietly, then sat down on the chair beside the bed.

The boy that he saw was not the same one that he'd come to know and love over the years, first through Amanda's accounts of her sons' escapades and then through the countless number of unknown nightly observations of her household. Compared to his usual energetic and chipper self, Phillip now looked pale and very vulnerable.

An intravenous bag had been set up; pumping heavens only knew what into the teenager and, at that moment, Lee was very glad that Amanda was not here to witness this. If his heart was breaking, he couldn't even begin to imagine what affect it would have had on her, especially in her present condition.

Tentatively, Lee reached out a hand and pushed some of his damp hair away from Phillip's eyes. He had to smile as he remembered Amanda trying just weeks earlier to convince him to get his hair cut but Phillip had insisted that all of the boys were wearing it longer. Lee wasn't sure but he thought it had something to do with the current group of rockers that dominated the top of the radio charts.

The teenager's skin felt hot, just as his mother's had.

Lee shook his head.

"Oh, Phillip," he breathed silently.

The boy's eyes fluttered open.

"Lee?"

"Hey Chief," Lee greeted him, thrilled to hear the youngster's voice.

"Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital, back home," Lee told him.

Phillip inhaled a few times, then blinked his eyes.

"I don't feel so good," he managed to mumble.

"I know," Lee told him. "Give it awhile, until the antibiotics kick in."

"Where's wormhead?"

Lee couldn't even bring himself to scold the sick boy.

"He's on his way back to DC right now."

"Dad?"

"A few rooms down the hall," Lee told him.

"Where's Mom?"

"She'll be here soon. I promise."

"So sleepy," Phillip mumbled, his eyes already drifting shut.

Lee reached out and grasped the youngster's hand in his.

"You just sleep. I'll be right here if you need anything."

"Okay," Phillip managed to say.

Lee sat there for a few minutes, until he was sure that Phillip was asleep. He was almost afraid to leave, afraid to take his eyes off one of the most important things in the world to Amanda. If anything were to ever happen to either of the boys, he knew it would crush her.

Finally, assured that Phillip was sleeping soundly, he got up. He had one more visit to make, before calling back to the Agency to check on his wife.

He turned to the left and headed down the corridor, to room two-twelve. He found a nurse inside, wearing enough protective gear to insulate her from just about anything. She looked up at him and then picked up her chart and left.

Lee found himself left alone with Amanda's ex-husband, both participants in a scene that neither could have ever imagined would be played out.

All manner of equipment had been set up, far more than had been in Phillip's room. Of course, after speaking with McJohn, Lee had been expecting it. Still, he found that he hadn't been prepared for it. Here was a man only a few years older than himself, a man who up until a few days ago had everything in the world going for him.

Staring at one of the monitors, Lee was startled to hear Joe's weak voice.

"Lee."

"Joe."

"Phillip?"

"He's a few rooms down."

"How is he?"

"He's gonna be fine," Lee tried to reassure the man.

"He got so sick, so quick," Joe managed to say.

Lee nodded.

"I know," he told Joe.

Joe closed his eyes for a moment, as if trying to find the strength to continue the conversation.

"What is this?"

"A bug that's going around," Lee tried to tell him.

"I know better, Stetson. Tell me," Joe pleaded. "What does my son have? What do I have?"

Lee pulled up the chair and sat down beside him.

"You deserve to know the truth," Lee told him.

"Damn right I do," Joe replied.

"The Russians managed to unleash a virus."

"What kind?"

Lee sighed.

He really didn't want to be the one to inform Joe.

Why did he have to be the one?

The look in the man's eyes told him that he wanted the truth, would accept nothing less than the truth.

"It's a form of the plague," Lee finally said.

"How?"

"They managed to infect members from the Agency, the NSC, the FBI and the CIA."

"Doesn't make any sense," Joe murmured.

"Amanda," Lee began. "She was exposed to it through our director."

"Is she okay?" Joe suddenly asked.

Lee nodded.

"The doctors said they caught it in time. She's weak, but improving."

"Jamie?"

"He wasn't showing any signs of it. They're still treating him, as a precaution."

The look of relief was evident on Joe's face.

"Some vacation," he said as he began to cough.

"Take it easy," Lee told him. "You need to rest."

When the coughing fit subsided, Joe shook his head slightly.

"Need to talk."

"About?"

"Manda and the boys," Joe said weakly. "You need to promise me that you'll take care of them."

"I thought we were going to do that together," Lee told him.

Joe closed his eyes for a moment.

"Promise me, Stetson, promise me that you'll take care of her. Take care of the boys."

"Don't think you're getting out of it so easily," Lee tried to joke.

"You're the only one," Joe said as he began to cough again.

Lee waited patiently until Joe stopped, watched silently as the man seemed to be fighting for his breath.

"I loved her," Joe said, "but it wasn't enough. Promise me," he began coughing again.

"Joe, save it for later, when you're well," Lee tried to tell him.

"You…tell her…tell her that I loved her…tell her that I want her to be happy."

"You're going to tell her that yourself," Lee pointed out to him.

Joe brought a hand up to his chest and grimaced.

"You're the best thing…that…ever happened…to her," Joe said, pausing as though he had to fight to get every word out. "Our sons…you be what I…couldn't… be."

"Joe, stop," Lee told him. "You're going to be fine. You need to rest."

"Tired," Joe said.

"Get some sleep. I'll stop by later, so will Amanda," Lee told him.

Joe reached out his hand to Lee, grabbing his arm as if he needed to make his point.

"Tell her…please…I really did love her."

"I will, if you promise to get some rest."

Joe nodded, then closed his eyes.

Lee rose up from his chair and left the room, nodding to the nurse who had been waiting to go back in Joe's room.

As he stood there, unsure of what to do next, that feeling returned, ten times larger than it had been at the Agency. Something told him that he should see if Amanda might be up to a trip to her ex-husband's side. Maybe, just maybe, her presence might make a difference.

He gazed down both sides of the corridor and then spied what he wanted. Heading back down towards Phillip's room, he stopped at the pay phone just across the hall.

He had just picked up the receiver and begun to dial the number for the Agency when the page blared across the loudspeakers.

"Code Blue, room two-twelve, Code Blue, room two-twelve."

Lee turned around to see a team of medical personnel rushing into the room he had just left. The telephone fell from his hand as the reality happening in front of him blurred and the memories came barreling back at him like a ton of bricks.

The voice of Doctor Neely sounded loud in his ears.

"Mr. Stetson, you can't help us save her life, but if you get in the way, you will help us lose it."

He could actually see the scene, happening again in front of his eyes. The medical staff swarming around Amanda's bedside and the screeching sound coming from one of the monitors.

"Sir? Sir?"

A woman's voice broke through the replaying nightmare and Lee shook his head to clear the image.

"Are you okay?" the nurse asked with a gentle concern.

Lee looked down first at the dangling telephone and then he turned his gaze back down the hallway.


	73. Chapter 73

****

CHAPTER 73

Part 1

By the time Lee exited the hospital doors and made his way to the awaiting Agency sedan, the outside temperature had become unbearably hot. Walking into it, after being inside the cooled air of the hospital was like walking straight into a fiery blast furnace. As he slid his long frame into the sedan, he didn't even notice the dark brewing storm clouds beginning to form over the DC area.

He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, startled as he realized just how drained he was, both physically and emotionally. How he was still up and functioning was suddenly beyond his comprehension.

The fact that he needed to be up and functioning was foremost among his thoughts. The luxury of indulging in much needed sleep, the ability to just retreat from everything, to simply take a few hours to recharge had been stolen away as if by a thief in the night.

Now, more than ever, he had to remain strong and yet, here he sat, doubting whether he had anything left internally to do what was going to be required, to do what was expected of him.

He had only the amount of time that it would take to arrive back at the Agency for himself. Precious little time it was, to mentally prepare for the upcoming formidable task that awaited him.

Hadn't it been just a few days ago that he and Amanda had been looking forward to getting in some quality time as husband and wife? Hadn't it been just days ago that he'd been selfishly bitching about the lack of air conditioning within the Agency?

"Damn," he murmured as he scrubbed his face with his hands.

He closed his eyes again and tried to banish all of the images that were playing out like a crazy kaleidoscope within his mind. Flashbacks and snippets of words, in crazy random fashion formed and then circled round, over and over until he wanted to do nothing more than smash something. The need to inflict and then feel a physical pain was almost overwhelming.

The Scarecrow had always been a man of action; he always had functioned best when he could be doing something. Making a difference, be it chasing down the bad guys or being chased by them, that's when his mind seemed best able to handle whatever curve balls were tossed in his direction.

He hated the mental game; he had always been disgusted with the sitting on hands until the timing was right. He loathed doing nothing and yet now, there was nothing that he could do except sit and wait for the ride to completed.

There was nothing that he could do to make a difference, nothing that could change the outcome that had already been put into motion, an outcome that would consist almost wholly of emotions. Emotions that were, despite the changes he'd undergone personally in the past few years, something of a still uncharted territory for him.

Childhood memories rose to the surface, fighting to have space with more current ones but all of them shared one thing, emotional reactions. Memories that made him question his ability to handle this, no matter which persona he adopted.

The only thing that could be done was wait until the ride was over and the destiny reached. And then, then he had to decide who could handle the situation best, Lee Stetson, the man or Scarecrow, the agent.

****

Part 2

By the time he had exited off the elevator and began the long dreaded walk down the corridor, he thought that he had himself steeled against the onslaught that was to come. He thought that he had done everything that he could do to prepare himself, yet as he neared the door, self-doubt rose within him like the water flowing upwards from a fountain.

And then, like a small blessing, a reprieve greeted him. The man stepping out the now familiar room had closed the door gently behind him and then looked up and gave him a warm smile.

Lee watched as that smile quickly faded.

"Lee?"

"You're back. Jamie?"

Leatherneck shrugged towards the door.

"He's sound asleep."

"He's okay though?"

The shorter man nodded.

"Doc says he'll be just fine. A few bruises but nothing that won't mend in quick time."

"Bruises?" Lee asked.

"I'll tell you later. How are Phillip and Joe?"

"Phillip's pretty sick but McJohn says that he's going to be fine, given time," Lee paused. "Where's Amanda?"

"Not sure. After she knew Jamie was fine and he had fallen asleep, she started pacing and acting real fidgety. Said she needed some privacy," Leatherneck told Lee.

"Did anyone say anything to her?"

"No," Dwayne responded slowly, eyeing his fellow agent carefully. "Lee, what aren't you saying, my friend?"

Lee exhaled slowly.

"I've got to find Amanda. I know I requested them to not to issue a report yet, but if someone else finds out and tells her before I get to her," Lee said.

"Tells her what?"

Lee shook his head and it was with that action that he knew.

"Oh gee," he said. "Man, I am so sorry."

"You did everything that you could," Lee told him. "I need to go find her."

"Go, man. I'll keep an eye on Jamie."

"Thanks," Lee told him before turning around. He'd taken only a few steps before he turned to face Leatherneck again.

"And thanks, thanks for bringing them home," he said quietly.

This time, Lee quickly made his way down the hallway, leaving Leatherneck to shake his head sadly at the tragedy that had befallen them.

****

PART 3

There was only one place that she could have gone and Lee had climbed the stairs slowly, trying to prepare himself, steeling himself for what he knew would come. He opened the door to the Q-Bureau and entered the room slowly, his heart aching for his wife.

She was standing behind his desk, looking out the window. She was hugging herself, her hands rubbing up and down her bare arms.

He walked over to her and came to stand behind her, placing his hands gently on her shoulders.

"I'd almost forgotten that there was a world outside of here," she said in a soft voice.

"Amanda," Lee began.

"Phillip's okay, right?" she asked in a voice that hardly sounded like her own.

Lee wrapped his arms around her tiny waist as he pulled her back against him.

"McJohn said Phillip's going to be okay," Lee told her.

He felt her soft exhale of relief.

His mind tumbled over the words; he wasn't sure how to tell her. And yet, from her actions, he believed that she already knew or at least suspected. Like she always known when he had needed her most, her instincts once again proving to be right on target.

"It's raining out," she whispered.

"Amanda," Lee tried to begin but she cut him off.

"Do you know it was raining the day that I signed the divorce papers?" she asked him.

"Amanda."

He felt her hands drop to cover his.

"Funny, why I can still remember that."

"Amanda," he tried again.

She shook her head slowly and then he heard the shudder in her breath, felt the slight tremble of her tiny body against his.

"Please don't say it," she pleaded in such a soft voice that he barely heard.

"Manda," Lee spoke gently as he guided her around to face him.

She shook her head again and he caught the glimpse of pain in them, the wet pools signifying her heartbreak already threatening to spill down her face.

And when she finally looked up at him, catching the pain that mirrored her own in his hazel eyes, she knew.

She buried her face against his chest and Lee heard the first tiny sob escape her lips.

"I'm so sorry, baby, I'm so sorry," he whispered against her hair.

Amanda raised her face to look up at him.

"It's my fault," she said, her voice shaky. "How do I tell them that this is my fault?"

"Hey," Lee gently told her, "Amanda, this is not your fault."

"Yes…it is," her words faltered and she buried her face against his chest.

Lee placed a hand under her chin and lifted her face up so that he could look at her. There were dark circles under her tear filled eyes. He didn't think he'd ever seen those beautiful eyes more filled with pain than he did right now at this moment.

Gently, he lifted a hand and wiped the tears from her face.

"You had no control over this, it isn't your fault," he reiterated.

"Lee, how do I tell them?" she asked him.

It was with that question that all of the emotions that she had been valiantly trying to hold back came out, full force and she fell against his chest, sobs wracking her.

"Oh, baby," Lee whispered as he held her.

He didn't know what to say or what to do. The day that he spoken his vows he had pledged to do his best to keep her happy and safe and he had known that he would give his life without hesitation if that was what it took. But this, this was beyond his power to change, no matter how much he would have liked to.

There weren't any words or actions that the Scarecrow could take to change what had happened, so he felt at a loss as to how to comfort her. After all, Joe had been the man she'd married and fathered two children with, a very significant part of her life, even though they had divorced and were no longer in love.

Whatever else, she and Joe had managed to forge a friendship out of their divorce and, especially in the past few years, had proven to be a formidable team when it came to parenting their two sons.

It was while he held her as she cried that Lee realized that the jealousy he'd once held towards Joe had long ago dissipated and he regretted the fact that they hadn't been able to forge a better friendship during the time that they had known one another.

Lee had made the dying man a promise to look after her and take care of their sons but right now he wondered how they would all manage to get through the pain and grief of their loss. He could only pray that he would have the strength to be the rock that she needed and the man that her sons would need.

And so, he held her in arms, allowing her to cry until her strength gave out and he felt her legs giving way beneath her. He sunk to the floor with her, supporting her and cradling her until the last of the sobs ceased and her tears ran dry. He rocked her back and forth until he heard her breathing ease into a steady pattern and felt the little sigh go through her body. And, when she had finally cried herself to the point of exhaustion and she fell asleep in his arms, he still held her tight.

Once he knew that she was not going to wake up anytime soon, he lifted her tiny form up and carried her over to the couch. He settled down, still cradling her in his arms and then reached for the throw that she had brought in that covered the back of the couch. He pulled it up over them and then he simply lay there, holding her in his arms.

He would stand silent guard over her, with her, while she slept. He would not leave her side for anything in the world. As exhaustion began to overtake his own body, he wondered how something so invisible, so silent and so undetectable could have managed to invade their lives and change them so drastically in just the space of a few days.

The last conscious thought Lee had as his own body gave in to the need for sleep was that of action. He vowed he would track them down and they would pay retribution for what they'd done.


	74. TSK the conclusion

CHAPTER 74

Before I begin posting the final chapters, I have to tell you what happened along the way while I was tweaking. It wasn't quite flowing as smoothly as I would have liked and I realized that if I wrote it according to the original outline, it was going to end up with an ending that I don't think I would have been happy with. But, if I went where the characters were begging to go, it was going to end up being nearly twice as long.

That's when you ask yourself, what's a girl gonna do?

Well, self came up with an answer, after pondering it for a night. The cast of available characters to play with is fantastic and the possibilities almost endless. The avenues still unexplored, a playground just screaming to be used. And trust me, when my muses scream at me with that much voltage, well, earplugs are useless.

There is only way to do this.

There was only word that came to mind.

Just one, I can assure you.

You guessed it.

I can not ignore the muses.

This is what they said:

………. SEQUEL! ……….

So yes, dear reader, you will notice some intentional loose ends and you might find yourself still looking for some answers.

So will our beloved cast.

But, sometime in the near future, To Catch a Silent Killer will premier, complete with flashbacks, action, romance, angst, and some payback!

Yeah, I know, that's insane, even by Twisted Sister standards, but I have learned you gotta do what the muse wanna do! Besides, when do I conform to conventional, boring old standards?

Well, enough of that, for now. I have a few other words to share with you before allowing you to see the ending.

When I originally drafted this out, I never anticipated it taking on the kind of life that it did and growing into what it eventually became.

I have to thank you for allowing me to take our cast and toss them into this plot, because it was not only a joy to write but also a wonderful chance to take them out of the usual SMK environment.

It was a challenge to get into the heads and the backgrounds of so many different characters, exploring their personalities and pasts, and then to attempt blending it all together with the plot. I can only hope that I stayed as true to them as possible, given the circumstances I threw them into.

My apologies for the shorter chapters, but I wrote it the way my mind visualized it. For me, it was taking what I could see play out and then write it so that you too might see it the same way.

One of my friends compared it to seeing the scenes, as they would play out rather than just reading a book. For me, it was more of a visual story, despite all of the getting into the minds that occurred throughout.

I have to thank so many of the Wicky girls who took time out of their busy lives to "appear" within this one as well.

And a special thanks to Ana's Homer as well!

Thank you, one and all!

If you didn't find yourself appearing in this one, never fear, I think I've acquired a new trademark style.

Along with those cliff hanging endings that just drive you nuts, I think including "cameos" is a wonderful way of paying tribute to the friends who have been so supportive, not only when it comes to me sharing my writing, (which, by the way Blue Leader, I still think sucks!), but in real life as well.

And a big thank you to those involved with SMK originally. All of the little references that are sprinkled throughout this fiction would not have been had it not been for their fabulous work that we all know and love, even to this day.

Thank you to all who've reviewed, encouraged, and even shared a few of your literary spices with me on this journey. It has been, truly, a wonderful journey and I hope you have enjoyed it as well.

If you did enjoy it, well then you can thank Kate Jackson for it. It was her fault, she did that plague movie and I had to watch it and well, this is what happened. (If you haven't seen it and if you like Kate, I recommend giving it a looksee.).

If you didn't like this story, well, I've decided that you can blame Bruce for it.

Why, I don't know, but it only seemed logical. (By the way, my Dad still owes me a copy of Bruce's pandemic movie, seems he didn't set something right when it was on. Dad!)

Of course, as they say, no copyright foul was intended and the only way that I profit from this one is the personal satisfaction and writing experience that I've obtained.

Reviews and suggestions are always welcome and if you noticed anything along the way that needs correcting, please let me know and I will edit accordingly. I've tried to catch all the errors but when you end being in the writing mood at two in the morning or dealing with RL, which for me was so darned crazy that it is a wonder that I ever got this thing off to the launch pad, yet alone in the air, well, you can sometimes miss something.

If, for any reason, you would like to obtain the NC-17 portions, which were written exclusively for the Wicky group, please let me know. As long as you're of age, I will share with you or give you info if you'd like to join Wicky (They are the MOST supportive bunch of friends I've ever been blessed to have!)

And, if you're really interested in posting this elsewhere in SMK land, let me know; though I doubt that has about as much possibility as my meeting a handsome fellow at the train station. Although one can only hope, I should go to the train station this weekend.

As always, Blue Leader has custodial rights, in the event that I should get assigned somewhere like Iceland or the North Pole.

And yes, I have not maimed, dented, scratched, crashed, twisted, bullet-riddled, flame-torched, cliff-tossed, bomb-attached, tire blown, or transmissioned out, the beloved and revered Vette.

Won't happen in one of my fictions, of that I can assure you. I leave that one up to you know who and you know who. Who I still luv anyhow, despite their destructive tendencies!!

On that note, here we go, the concluding chapters of TSK – The Silent Killer.

Enjoy!

Part 1

With the approach of evening came even more rain, the showers staying fairly consistent over the DC area. It had been a long time since the residents had seen rain and felt temperatures that were actually comfortable. It was a much-needed release from the heat wave that had hung over them without mercy for entirely far too long.

But, while the normal denizens around the nation's capitol were enjoying the respite, the members within the intelligence community were still a long way from obtaining their own release from the silent terror that had been unleashed upon them.

There was still much work to do, there were still bodies that needed time to heal, and there were still battle scars that remained to be inflicted upon the innocent and unsuspecting.

Lives had been changed or, even lost. Promising careers had either been brought to an abrupt end or now held previously unrecognized possibilities of change. Those that lived, breathed, and died to protect their nation and her vital secrets now found themselves on a different path, very much altered from the one that they had been on a week ago.

Even the innocence of youth, the belief that everything within one's own personal little sphere of influence was nothing less than perfect, was about to be shattered.

The ramifications of the silent killer were still there, the nightmare very real, very dark, and still very deadly.

PART 2

Looking up from where he sat, playing yet another game of checkers with the boy, he saw who had entered the room. At that moment, he felt it, the old and yet still raw emotions from an earlier battle.

He sympathized with them, knowing what was to come and knowing that both of them would have given anything to change the fates, just like he had wanted to. He foresaw the demons that would come to plague them in the middle of the darkened night, could imagine their unshed tears and muted cries that accompanied a shattered heart.

He could see it displayed in the hazel of his friend's eyes and written on the kind face of the mother who would not be able to kiss away the pain of this wound like she had done with so many earlier ones.

Giving the boy a warm smile, he arose from his chair and promised to finish the game at a later time, all the while knowing the simplicity and enjoyment for such things would be a long time in returning.

As he moved towards them, still standing in the doorway and looking nothing like the confident team he had come to know and respect, he gave a sympathetic look towards the man and then, when he had reached them, placed a gentle hand on her arm, hoping to convey his respect towards this loss and to impart some extra strength that would be greatly needed in the coming days and nights.

And then, he silently left the room and closed the door, leaving them alone with the heartbreaking task that would shatter yet another innocent heart among the young.

He forced himself to move down the corridor and found himself face to face with yet another victim of this silent murderer. She had the slightest trace of visible tears in her eyes, her normally calm and almost icy persona broken down. The invisible fortress that she had surrounded herself within, crumbled. Crumbled from the invisible attacker against the mortar that had held it firmly in place.

He held out his arms to her and, not all that surprisingly, she accepted his silent offer of comfort in this moment where they shared the grief of their friends and coworkers.

Rulebook be damned, he thought. Although the wording upon the written page may have cautioned against the formation of and the continued participation in personal relationships outside the zone of work related matters, the human beings beneath that existed within the agents were still that, humans. Humans who possessed real emotions, sensations and feelings that could not be ignored, despite the damned rulebook.

Over the years, they had developed respect and camaraderie, quirky relationships that may have consisted of almost childish battles, emotionless behaviors and odd habits. Despite it all, they had become a family, of sorts. A family that had served as a substitute for the many who had not sought out one of their own or had perhaps lost theirs along the way as he had.

And so, standing together, they grieved silently. And then, when the time would come, they would stand behind those who needed it, supporting and sharing during the darkest of hours.

This silent killer that had been unleashed among them may have taken lives but it had not destroyed the ability to still do one of the most important things that one agent could do for another. They would watch each other's backs, they would be there for another when the call to duty sounded its mourning wail and, when the day finally returned, they would be there to share in the sweet joy of laughter together.

Part 3

Colonel Thomas McJohn sat in the quiet of his office, in the dimness that he had created by turning off almost all of the room's lights.

In the envelope that he held in his hand, he knew what he would find. The Presidential seal served as a forerunner of the script within, the many questions that needed answers. He'd heard the hushed echoes of the rumors within the hushed walls and now, the seal only confirmed what he would find when he opened it.

How many lives had been lost and how many could have been saved?

What could be done against future reoccurrence?

Could and would it happen again?

And, even if it wasn't specifically written in there, the Colonel wanted to know if the culprits, the very instruments of the devil himself, had been located.

Lying the envelope down on his desk, he knew that it was still early days yet. A lot of work had yet to be done, once those who so bravely served their nation were back up and healthy enough to do so.

If he were a betting man he would bet on their side. The home team would play this game out and he pitied those who had participated for the other side.

The home team did not take kindly to fatal blows and far too many had been dealt. The NSC had lost a total of five individuals, the CIA had lost three, and the FBI had lost two. The Agency herself had been dealt a cruel hand with three fatalities. They'd lost not only their director, but one freshman agent candidate and one woman who had served them for years, steadfastly working her life throughout many positions until she had come to guard the Georgetown foyer with a firm hand and, from what he'd heard, an occasional smile.

But it was civilian life lost that bothered the Colonel the most.

A good man, a lawyer who had lived his life to uphold the rights for those who needed a champion to uphold them when they couldn't do it for themselves. A loving father who should still have been among them to witness the many achievements of his two boys who still had many goals to accomplish. A promising life snuffed out too quickly as far as McJohn was concerned. A promising life snuffed out because of the fateful connection to the Agency through one of her employees.

And so, yes, McJohn knew that he would accept the President's request. If not for the agents who had been lost, if not out of respect for the loss of civilians, if for neither of those reasons, he still had one that made it important to take on this new challenge.

It was for the two young sons who had been left fatherless; it was for the families of those who had died at the hands of something that they had not even been able to see. It was for the heartbreak and for the loss and for the tears that had been and still would be shed for those who had fallen.

His decision made, he placed the envelope on the top of the stack of other papers that sat in his incoming bin.

There was work to be done and once he was rested, once the members of the team were ready to play again, McJohn welcomed the opportunity to venture to the playing field. And, one by one, they would bring the devils down and score yet another victory in the name of the free and the brave.

Epilogue

Monday, August 10th, 1987 – Arlington, Virginia

He waited; leaning against the side of the car that was currently parked on the grassy knoll near the edge of the cemetery. Patiently, he stood and watched, surrounded by the grand old trees that stood silent guard over those who had left this realm for the unknown whatever on the other side. A light wind rustled the leaves that would eventually begin the progression of change that would highlight the world around them with the brilliant colors of the fall, leaving this summer to fade away into just another memory.

He stood there, because of change. Like the trees around them, their world had shifted, whether they had wanted it to or not. Like the weather, they had no control over it. They could only ride it out and pray for the best.

He knew that he had done far more praying this year than he had ever done in his life. And, as he lovingly gazed down at her slender form kneeling in front of the headstone that resided among the many others, he realized that change was because of her.

The woman that he had fallen hopelessly in love with, the woman who could make him smile so easily and who had the uncanny ability to calm the savage beast that still raged within him with merely the gentle touch of her hand or a soft look towards him from her beautiful brown eyes.

His wife, the woman who, in his personal opinion, had had far too many personal battles to wage and who should have run in the opposite direction from him a long time ago. Instead, she had given him her heart and soul, her love and her life.

A life which, even now, weeks after the devastation, was still in turmoil, a life which he longed to fix and make better but instead, still found himself floundering as to how to accomplish that.

Time, he had been told, would be the best healer. Time and love and patience, mixed with a little therapy from the Agency shrink who predicted that the things sent askew in the universe would be righted and that life would become more than just trying to get through one day at a time.

And so, on the advice of the very same shrink, they had come here today and he stood waiting, loving her even more for the courage that she had and knowing from personal experience how hard this journey had been for her to make.

He watched her fidget with the bouquet of flowers that she had brought, moving them as though their resting spot were the most important thing of the day.

He watched as her hand came up to her face. He knew, without seeing her face, that she was brushing away the tears. Tears that still fell, sometimes in the middle of the night or at times when she was with her sons, and even once in awhile when she sat at her desk.

Maybe, once upon a time, a long time ago, he might have been jealous. But not today, the jealousy was long gone. Today he simply wished that he could take away her pain, their pain, and make things right for the family that he now called his own.

Time and patience, Doctor Tootie-fruity had recommended. Those were words that once would not have fit into his personality description. But, again, because of her, that had changed. He would give them time and he would be patient, he would wait and one day his family would heal.

But right now, his patience was limited and he found his long legs carrying him down the knoll to stand behind his wife. He leaned over and placed his palms on her shoulders, pressing lightly to let her know that he was standing with her, hurting with her as well.

And then, she stood slowly and turned to face him, her brown eyes damp with tears but the faint beginnings of that beautiful smile upon her lovely face.

"Thank you," she whispered softly.

"Isn't needed," he replied as he leaned down and kissed her lips gently.

She rested her palms on his chest, rubbing them up and down slightly against the warmth of the man that she loved more than anything. The man who so unselfishly allowed her time to mourn the loss of the first who had held her heart before him. The man who would do anything for her and for her sons because he simply loved them, because they were now his family.

"I love you," Amanda whispered.

"And I love you, Mrs. Stetson," he replied.

Lee reached up and took her smaller hands in his.

"Ready to go home?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I think I am," she responded.

Together, hand in hand, the husband and wife walked back to the silver car that awaited them for the drive back home. And, while the journey along the road back to normality and healing might not be as easy to traverse, together, hand in hand, they were traveling it.

Together, she thought.

She looked at him and smiled and was promptly rewarded by one his dimpled grins.

She knew that things would improve; that in time their lives would be less complicated and filled with happiness instead of quiet sorrow.

Okay, maybe scratch the less complicated portion, she thought.

But, looking now at the man who held her hand, she was assured that they would get through this. As a team, as friends, as a family.

Amanda stopped walking and tugged his hand, pulling him close to her. And, for the first time in what seemed a lifetime, Lee was rewarded by a passionate sparkle in her dark eyes as she stood up on her toes. She covered his mouth with her own, giving Lee a kiss that reassured him that not everything had been lost when the deadly killer had taken so much from them.

Tuesday, August 11th, 1987 – An undisclosed location in Moscow

In the tiny room there was a table, an old but beautifully hand-crafted table that still gleamed from the love of the hands that had crafted her. Several matching chairs surrounded and they were occupied. Occupied by men who had long ago traded their souls with the devil and taken steps on a path towards a meaningless victory in the name of patriotism.

Tonight they celebrated, over food and vodka, drinking in honor of those who had paved their way and in anticipation of the glory that would be bestowed upon them.

But, as they drank and cheered their victory over the already fallen American soldiers and anticipated their still as yet to be divulged and finalized next plan of attack, they lacked one thing.

The knowledge that outside, lurking in the dark edges of the Russian night and, as quiet as the killer that they had unleashed, a new enemy awaited.

A new enemy that was hell bent on bringing their victory crashing down around their smiling faces and leaving nothing but fragmented remains.

Remnants that, when all was said and done, would resemble the shards that remained once the beauty of the crystal glasses were shattered.

The End, at least until the Sequel arrives :)

Respectfully submitted,

Twisted Sister - the totally unconventional and completely demented nun who has traumatized wicky like no other & they still haven't kicked me out, LOL


	75. Chapter 75

06/05/08 – For those of you who had inquired about the more "mature" scenes of this story that housed on the wicky archive, I have good news.

The archive is now back up and running and the stories are in the process of being reinserted.

TSK is now fully archived there.

If you go to you wickyarchive(dot)net, you should be able to get it.

Feel free to hop on over and check the site out.

On a side note, the sequel to this one is in the works and should probably be up late this summer, give or take with RL.

So, peace out, as my niece says and have a great summer!


End file.
